System generated assessment orders have no legal sanctity in eyes of law: Appellate Tribunal

Delhi Value Added Tax (DVAT), Appellate Tribunal in Landmark judgment in case of Chaudhary Plastic Works has set aside the VAT assessment orders pertaining to tax period 2013-14 which was neither digitally signed/ signed by the assessing authority nor bearing officers name.

Further, the Tribunal also held that Portal/system-generated Assessment orders have no legal sanctity in the eyes of law.

In this case, the Assessing Authority imposed a penalty of Rs. 47,000/- for violation of each Act i.e. CST Act and DVAT Act, on the ground of late filing of return relating to tax period 2nd quarter 2013.

In this appeal, the main thrust of learned counsel for the appellant is that the impugned assessments framed by the learned Assessing Authority are illegal as the same do not bear the name and signatures of the issuing authority and also because the notices of assessments/assessments orders are system-generated documents.

Referring to the decisions of M/s. Bhumika Enterprises’s case (supra) and M/s. Swastik Polymers’ case (supra) to the present case, the tribunal held that the notices of default assessments being not digitally signed and having been uploaded on the portal of the Department have not been issued in accordance with the law.