Hyderabad: A significant win for the state tax department, a three-judge bench of the Telangana high court on Wednesday dismissed a batch of more than 500 petitions challenging State GST show-cause notices and assessment orders solely on the ground that their summary pages did not carry digital signatures.
The ruling upholds the validity of notices issued by the department and uploaded on the GST portal. The cases involve an aggregate State GST liability of around Rs 1,500 crore.
Overturning earlier division bench rulings, the bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, Justice N Tukaramji and Justice G M Mohiuddin held that the absence of a digital signature on the summary pages does not invalidate the notices or make them liable to be quashed.
The court also granted the petitioners two weeks either to clear the dues or to challenge the judgment in appeal.
