Effective access to show cause notice is essential; assessment set aside where GST portal notice could not be meaningfully replied to.

A tax demand confirmed under Section 73 of the Delhi GST Act was held unsustainable where the show cause notice was not effectively accessible to the assessee on the GST portal. The notice had appeared under "Additional Notices and Orders" and, due to the portal configuration then in place, the taxpayer could not readily access or respond to it. Treating the issue as covered by prior High Court decisions and noting that the portal defect was later remedied, the Court set aside the assessment order and directed fresh adjudication after permitting a reply and granting a meaningful hearing.

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Issues: Whether the impugned assessment order passed under Section 73 of the Delhi Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was liable to be set aside for want of effective notice and opportunity to respond to the show cause notice, and whether the matter should be remanded for fresh adjudication.

Analysis: The show cause notice had been placed on the GST portal under the tab of "Additional Notices and Orders" and was not readily accessible to the taxpayer at the relevant time. The petitioner claimed that the notice was not received and could not be responded to, and the difficulty was linked to the portal configuration then prevailing. The issue was treated as covered by prior decisions of the Court, and the accessibility defect in the portal was noted as having been subsequently remedied. In these circumstances, the denial of an effective opportunity to answer the notice warranted interference.

Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the petitioner was permitted to file a reply to the show cause notice, after which the adjudicating authority was directed to decide the matter afresh after hearing the petitioner.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tax demand is confirmed on the basis of a show cause notice that was not effectively accessible to the assessee, the resulting order cannot be sustained and the assessee must be afforded a meaningful opportunity to reply before fresh adjudication.

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