SANTHIKRISHNA v. STATE TAX OFFICER & ORS.

This judgment of the Kerala High Court reiterates that uploading an adjudication order on the GST Common Portal constitutes valid service under Sections 169 and 146 of the CGST Act. The Court held that once an order is uploaded on the notified Common Portal, the statutory requirement of communication stands satisfied, irrespective of whether the taxpayer actually accessed or viewed the order.

The Court further held that a taxpayer cannot seek to overcome an unexplained delay of nearly three years by contending that the Common Portal was not regularly monitored due to business commitments or negligence of a tax practitioner. Relying upon its earlier Division Bench decision in Sunil Kumar v. State Tax Officer, the Court dismissed the writ appeal while leaving it open to the appellant to pursue the statutory appellate remedy, subject to the law of limitation.