High Court: GST Notice Uploaded on Portal is Valid Service, Dismisses Plea Against GSTIN Cancellation

The petitioner, Latheesh Chovvattapadinhare Kuthirummal, is a professional involved in branding work and art projects. He had a GST registration under the CGST Act but did not file GST returns for more than six months. Because of this, the GST department issued a notice to him, as evident from Ext.P3 on 05.02.2024, directing the petitioner to submit his GST return and to appear before the concerned officer on 04.03.2025. However, the petitioner did not receive the order, and therefore, this resulted in the Ext.P4 order dated 14.03.2024 cancelling his registration. The petitioner filed an appeal against this order to the High Court.

Petitioner’s Argument

The petitioner’s learned counsel contended that the petitioner did not receive the Ext.P3 notice and the Ext.P4 order by post at his registered address. The notice and the order were only uploaded to the web portal. The petitioner was not aware of the same, as he was not doing business regularly, and he did not check the portal regularly. Therefore, the petitioner filed the appeal to quash both orders.

Kerala HC Decision

• The court observed that under Section 169 of the CGST Act, uploading notices and orders on the GST portal is a valid and acceptable method of issuing notices. Just because the notices were not issued physically to the petitioner does not mean the order is invalid.
• The court stated that it cannot provide relief to the petitioner as the notices and the orders in this case were issued in an acceptable manner under section 69(d) of the Act.
• The Court dismissed the petition, saying the order was legally valid and no interference was required in this case.