Uploading a GST show-cause notice only under the “Additional Notices and Orders” tab violates natural justice.

The petitioner challenged an adjudication order dated 10 February 2021 and an appellate order dismissing its appeal as time-barred.

The dispute arose from a show-cause notice issued in Form GST DRC-01 on 8 January 2021, which the petitioner said had been uploaded only under the GST portal’s “Additional Notice and Orders” tab, without separate intimation.

The petitioner claimed it learned of the adjudication order after changing its accountant and thereafter appealed under Section 107 of the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

The appellate authority dismissed the appeal on limitation without considering the merits.

The State opposed the petition, maintaining that the petitioner had been given sufficient opportunity.

1. Whether dismissal of the petitioner’s statutory appeal on limitation warranted interference where the show-cause notice had been uploaded only under the “Additional Notice and Orders” tab, allegedly without separate intimation.

2. Whether the adjudication order and show-cause notice should be set aside and the matter remitted for fresh proceedings.

Section 107 of the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 governs appeals against adjudication orders.

The Court applied the principle of natural justice that a person must receive a fair opportunity to respond before an adverse decision is made; it held that, on the facts presented, uploading the show-cause notice only under the “Additional Notice and Orders” tab without separate intimation constituted a violation of natural justice.

The Court found that the petitioner had made a prima facie case and accepted that the manner in which the show-cause notice was uploaded, without separate intimation, had prevented the petitioner from replying to it.

Because the appeal had been rejected solely on limitation and had not been decided on its merits, the Court considered interference appropriate in the interests of justice.

It therefore set aside the notice and both orders and directed fresh proceedings.

It directed the first respondent to issue a fresh show-cause notice within two weeks; the petitioner must file a detailed reply within two weeks thereafter; and the respondent must provide a hearing and pass a reasoned order within 12 weeks, communicating it within a further week.