Statutory appellate remedy bars writ review where GST order upload on the portal amounts to contemporaneous knowledge.

Where a GST assessment or demand order is appealable under the statutory appellate scheme, writ jurisdiction will ordinarily not be used to bypass that remedy. The Calcutta High Court noted that upload of the final order summary on the GST portal in FORM GST DRC-07, read with Rules 142(5) and 142(6) of the West Bengal GST Rules, gave the petitioner contemporaneous knowledge of the order. The plea that the final order had not been formally served for more than three years did not justify skipping the prescribed appeal under Section 107, and the writ petition was dismissed as not maintainable for failure to exhaust the efficacious statutory remedy.

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Issues: Whether the writ petition was maintainable in view of the statutory appeal under the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and whether the plea of non-service of the final order justified bypassing that remedy.

Analysis: The impugned proceeding arose under Section 74 of the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The Court noted that the statutory scheme provided an appeal under Section 107 of the Act and that the summary of the order had been uploaded on the portal in FORM GST DRC-07. On the combined reading of Rule 142(5) and Rule 142(6) of the West Bengal Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, the petitioner was treated as having contemporaneous knowledge of the final order and was obliged to pursue the prescribed statutory remedy. In these circumstances, the plea that no final order had been served for more than three years did not justify invocation of writ jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The writ petition was held to be not maintainable and was dismissed for failure to avail the efficacious statutory appellate remedy.

Final Conclusion: The Court declined to exercise writ jurisdiction because the petitioner had an alternative statutory remedy and the challenge was barred by the availability of that appellate channel.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an efficacious statutory appeal is available, writ jurisdiction will ordinarily not be exercised to circumvent the appellate mechanism, especially when the statutory framework deems service or knowledge of the order through portal upload and related procedural rules.

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