Orissa High Court Sets Aside Ex Parte GST Order Over Notice Sent To VAT-Era Email

The Orissa High Court has recently set aside an ex parte GST adjudication order after finding that the tax department proceeded without ensuring that the show cause notice had actually reached the assessee, as it was sent to an email ID used during the VAT regime.

A division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Murahari Sri Raman said that once a person is treated as an unregistered taxpayer after the introduction of GST, the burden lies on the department to verify effective service of notice.

“It is incumbent upon the CT and GST Officer to have verified whether at all the SCN for adjudication had reached the addressee,” the court observed.

The case involved a contractor whose GST registration stood cancelled with effect from July 1, 2017. While the work had been completed before GST came into force, the petitioner received payments between July 2017 and March 2018.

In December 2021, the tax department issued a show cause notice under Section 63 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act and later passed an adjudication order on February 3, 2022, treating him as an unregistered person.

The notice was sent only to an email address furnished during the VAT regime.

The taxpayer told the court that the email ID had become inactive after the cancellation of registration and that he remained unaware of the proceedings. The department argued that service through the registered email was sufficient and that the petitioner could not avoid tax liability.

The bench noted that the petitioner could not take part in the proceeding under Section 63 of the GST Act and had been deprived of a meaningful opportunity of hearing.

Setting aside the order, the court clarified that it was not deciding the tax liability on merits. It remitted the matter to the adjudicating authority, directing it to grant a proper hearing and conclude the proceedings within three months of the taxpayer's appearance. 

Case Title: Ashis Ranjan Sahu v. The Chief Commissioner of CT & GST, Odisha and others

Citation: 2026 LLBiz HC(ORI) 2