The Calcutta High Court ruled that the only possibility that a taxpayer may have obtained an SMS/email alert for GST ( Goods and Services Tax) adjudication order is not conclusive evidence of service.
Rajkumar Dyeing & Printing Works Private Limited has submitted a writ. The order of the appellate authority passed under section 107 of the WBGST Act, 2017/CGST Act, 2017 has been contested by the taxpayer. The appeal was dismissed based on the delay.
Applicant, it could not submit the plea within time as the adjudication order was uploaded on the GST portal under the “Additional Notices and Orders” tab, and not in the main tab.
Adv. Sandip Choraria, applicant’s counsel, said that the department does not deliver the personal hearing mandated u/s 75(4) of the GST Act.
Applicant said that the appellate order was valid and cited that the SMS and email history of the registered mobile number and email ID of the applicant were checked.
The department cited that it can be established that, beyond uploading the order on the portal, a notification needs to be sent to the applicant.
A screenshot of the email inbox has been provided by the applicant in response to show that no such notification was received.
The court, after noting the appellate order, said that “The appellate order has not even reached a conclusion that the notification as spoken of in the said order was at all sent to the petitioner either through SMS or through e-mail. The order only speaks of a possibility.”
Justice Om Narayan Rai observed that a personal hearing was not conducted before issuing the adversarial order. He noted that the one-and-a-half-page order fails to provide sufficient reasoning for the conclusions reached by the proper officer, as stated by the court.
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As per that, the court set aside the appellate order and asked for a fresh acknowledgement of the cash, post-granting a proper chance of hearing.
| Case Title | Rajkumar Dyeing & Printing Works Pvt. Ltd. vs. Deputy Commissioner of State Tax |
| Case Number | W.P.A. 17928 of 2025 |
| For the Petitioner | Mr Sandip Choraria, Mr Akash Chakraborty, Mr Rishav Manna |
| For Respondent | Mr Tanoy Chakraborty, Mr Saptak Sanyal, Mr Debraj Sahu |
| Calcutta High Court | Read Order |
