Orders Issued U/S 73 Of CGST Act Must Carry Digital Or Physical Signature Of Officer In Order To Be Treated As Valid: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court stated that orders issued under Section 73 of the CGST/SGST Acts must carry the digital or manual signature of the officer passing the order in order to treat the order to be a valid order. The Bench of Justice Gopinath P. was considering the issue that whether orders issued under Section 73 of the CGST/SGST Acts must carry the digital or manual signature of the officer passing the order in order to treat the order to be a valid order for the purposes of the CGST/SGST Acts. In this case, the writ petition was filed by the assessee/petitioners stating that the orders issued under Section 73 of the CGST are invalid as they lack digital/manual signature of the officer passing the order. The bench looked into the case of Silver Oak Villas LLP V. Assistant Commissioner (ST), Begunpet Division Hyderabad [(2024) 17 Centax 442 (Telangana)], where it was stated that “8. Yet another matter came up before the High Court of Delhi in W.P.No.2872 of 2023, which stood decided on 03.02.2023 [2023 (78) G.S.T.L. 232(Del.) =(2023) 7 Centax 174 (Del.)], wherein in paragraph Nos.14 to 17 the High Court of Delhi has held as under: Concededly, the impugned order cannot be sustained as it is unsigned. This issue is covered by the decision of a coordinate Bench of this Court in Railsys Engineers Private Limited & Anr. V. The Additional Commissioner of Central Goods and Services Tax (Appeals-II) & Anr. W.P.(C) 4712/2022, decided on 21.07.2022.: An unsigned notice or an order cannot be considered as an order as has been held by the Bombay High Court in Ramani Suchit Malushte vs. Union of India and ors. W.P.(C) 9331/2022, decided on 21.09.2022. In view of the above, the impugned order dated 07.06.2022 is set aside.” The bench after analysing the case of Silver Oak Villas (supra) opined that the reference to Rule 26(3) of the CGST Rules in the said judgment may not be apposite as that Rule refers specifically to issues of registration. The bench stated that “…it will be open to the competent among the respondents/department in all these cases to upload fresh orders by affixing digital signatures or by serving a copy of the order after affixing manual signature.” In view of the above, the bench allowed the petition and set aside the impugned order. Case Title: M/s Fortune Service v. Union Of IndiaCitation: 2024 LiveLaw (Ker) 821 Case Number: WP(C) NO. 20656 OF 2024 Counsel for Petitioner/ Assessee: K.P. Abdul Azees Counsel for Respondent/ Department: P.R. Sreejith Click Here To Read/Download The Order

Orders Issued U/S 73 Of CGST Act Must Carry Digital Or Physical Signature Of Officer In Order To Be Treated As Valid: Kerala High Court

Mehak Dhiman

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