Mere uploading SCN or Order on the common portal is not service of such SCN/Order

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has held that uploading of SCN or order on the Common Portal would not amount to service of such SCN or order upon the assessee in terms of Section 169 of the CGST Act, 2017. The Court in this regard observed the following:

• Common Portal, i.e. www.gst.gov.in, is not notified as a portal for the service of notices or orders by any notification issued under Section 146.

• Email intimating the assessee about the upload is not sufficient compliance under Section 169(1)(c), as the notice/order itself is not sent by e-mail. 

• One gets to know that notices/orders have been uploaded on the Common Portal only by way of a complex process which is quite cumbersome. It was observed that ‘a digital platform through which statutory rights are to be recognized cannot be designed in a manner to render the existence of SCN or orders in-original dependent upon the taxpayer’s ability to navigate an obscure or unintuitive interface’.

It was thus held that service of SCN upon the assessee cannot be deemed sufficient merely on account of its uploading on the Common Portal, unless its receipt is acknowledged or a reply is filed.

The Revenue department in Luxmi Traders v. Union Territory of Chandigarh [Decision dated 21 July 2026], was thus directed to,

• notify the Common Portal for effecting service of SCN/order etc.

• introduce prominent dashboard alerts for statutory communications; mandatory pop-up notifications; OTP based acknowledgement of important legal communications; automated SMS alerts and a separate section altogether on the dashboard of taxpayer for service of statutory notices/orders, etc.

One of the assessees was represented by Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys here.