The Bombay High court ruling said that in an order in which the cancellation order of registration under the GST act was uploaded on the GST portal without a signature, the limitation to furnish the appeal could not be initiated unless the signature would get affixed to the same order.
A division bench of Justice K.R. Shriram and Justice A.S. Doctor was regarding the case, Ramani Malushte v Union of India and Ors, in which the cancellation order of the GST registration was issued dated 14th Nov 2019. The order was not being signed manually or digitally but was only uploaded on the GST portal.
The taxpayer receives attestation on the same order provided after 1.5 years dated 19th May 2021 when an attested copy was needed to get furnished prior to the first appeal officer. The petition was refused due to the limited time duration by the First Appeal noting that the limitation and condonation period was ended prior to passing the Supreme Court COVID order, the appeal was not maintainable. On 14 November 2019, the first appeal officer counted the limitation.
The court specified that “In the affidavit in reply, it is not denied that the order in original dated 14th November 2019 was not digitally signed. In the affidavit, in reply, it is specifically stated that the issuing authority digitally signed the show cause notice under GST but when it refers to the order in original dated 14th November 2019 there is total silence about any digital signature being put by the issuing authority. Conveniently, respondent stated that petitioner cannot take stand of not receiving the signed copy because the unsigned order was admittedly received by petitioner electronically. However, if this stand of the respondent has to be accepted, then the Rules which prescribe specifically that a digital signature has to be put will be rendered redundant. In our view, unless digital signature is put by the issuing authority that order will have no effect in the eyes of law,”
The High Court ruled that the petition was for a limited time. As the order was not being signed as needed by Rule 26(3) of the CGST Rules, the limitation cannot start from 14 November 2019. When the taxpayer went for the physical signature during the filing of the petition, dated 19th May 2021, the limitation commences dated 19th May 2021.
Petitioner was represented by Adv. Ishaan Patkar was instructed by Mr. Lilesh Sawant.
