Madras HC: GST Appeal Can’t Be Denied for Failing to Upload Legal Documents on Portal Due to Technical Errors

The Madras High Court mentioned that an appeal cannot be rejected only because of the failure to upload documents on the GST portal if the delay or failure is from technical errors on the portal.

The Bench of Justice Krishnan Ramasamy noted that “… an appeal should not be rejected without allowing the parties to be heard, particularly when the rejection arises from technical issues beyond their control.”

Case Facts of M/s.Shivpad Engineers Pvt

The taxpayer filed an appeal manually to the appellate authority. But even after having all the important documents the taxpayer was not able to upload the soft copy of the appeal on the GST portal because of technical issues. Consequently, the appeal was rejected on the foundation that merely the hard copy had been furnished and the needed soft copy had not been uploaded on the portal.

It was furnished by the taxpayer that due to technical issues they were not able to upload the soft copy. However, the taxpayer furnished to upload the same and they did not succeed because of the glitches with the portal. The taxpayer furnished that if a chance is allotted then they can upload the needed documents.

But it was furnished that the appeal was not accepted as of the non-filing of the soft copy. They indeed remarked that there was a 1½ month delay in appeal filing, which surpasses the legal limit and the appellate authority does not have the authority to condone these delays under the law.

Madras High Court Observations

It was remarked by the bench that the plea was not accepted only on the foundation that the soft copy was not uploaded due to technical glitches.

“This Court acknowledges that the delay in filing the appeal was genuine, as it was caused by these issues during the upload process. In such circumstances, an appeal should not be rejected without allowing the parties to be heard, particularly when the rejection arises from technical issues beyond their control.” Bench mentioned.

Considering the above-said, the petition was allowed by the bench and the taxpayer to furnish the plea both manually and via uploading of the soft copy in 30 days.