Bombay High Court Condones Appeal Delay — Order Uploaded Under Wrong Tab on GST Portal Does Not Amount to ‘Communication’

The Court held that uploading an order under ‘Additional Notices and Orders’ instead of ‘View Notices and Orders’ does not constitute communication for computing limitation under Section 107(1).

The Bombay High Court has quashed an appellate order that dismissed a GST appeal as time-barred, holding that an adjudication order uploaded under the wrong section of the GST portal — the “Additional Notices and Orders” tab instead of the “View Notices and Orders” section — does not constitute communication within the meaning of Section 107(1) of the CGST Act [Elster Metering Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.].

The bench of Justices M.S. Karnik and Sandesh D. Patil noted that the petitioner — a manufacturer of gas metering equipment — had repeatedly explained to the department that a discrepancy between GSTR-1 and e-way bill data arose because two e-way bills were generated for a single invoice (goods transported in two vehicles), with the entire invoice value entered in both. Despite receiving these explanations with supporting documents, the adjudicating authority passed the order confirming the demand, stating the petitioner had “not submitted any supporting documents.”

Relying on its earlier decision in T.S. Lines India Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Maharashtra, the Court held that no fault could be attributed to the petitioner for not having noticed the order when it was placed in the wrong tab. The Court observed that the appellate authority’s reasoning — that the petitioner was “well aware about portal details” because it filed returns regularly — conflated periodical filing of returns with knowledge of an order placed in a tab where orders are not required to be placed.

Relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in Tecnimont Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Punjab, the Court held that while the appellate authority may lack power to extend limitation, the power of the High Court under Article 226 is not curtailed. It condoned the delay and directed the appellate authority to decide the appeal on merits.

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