HYDERABAD: In a rare move, senior GST officials on Thursday personally appeared before the Telangana High Court and gave a live demonstration of how notices are generated and issued through the GST portal.
The demonstration, which lasted over an hour and a half, was held before a bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh, Justice P Sham Koshy, Justice Suddala Chalapathi Rao and Justice GM Mohiuddin. The court is hearing nearly 150 petitions challenging the legality of unsigned GST notices.
Earlier, several hundred writ petitions had questioned the validity of notices issued without visible signatures. Although the high court had repeatedly ruled that such notices must bear proper authentication, new petitions continued to be filed. In this context, the bench directed the state and Central GST Commissioners to appear in person and explain the process.
Following the order, Telangana Commercial Taxes Commissioner K Haritha and Central GST Commissioner Srinivasulu attended with computer systems and digital keys. They explained that notices are issued with digital signatures as required under Rule DRC-7. However, they said that while the signature is embedded in the notice, it does not appear when downloaded or printed, giving the impression that the notices are unsigned.
Advocate General A Sudarshan Reddy and Special Government Pleader Swaroop Oorilla assisted the GST officials in explaining the process. The officials assured the court that counters would be filed in all pending petitions within four weeks. Petitioners were asked to file their replies within two additional weeks. The bench fixed October 30 as the next date of hearing and made it clear that no further adjournments would be allowed.
The Chief Justice noted that, as the GST system was relatively new, the judiciary also had to learn its procedures along with the tax authorities. He said the demonstration would help identify procedural gaps, if any, and enable the court to recommend corrections to the GST Council. The bench also recalled that a similar exercise had earlier been undertaken in Jharkhand to resolve such disputes.
The court described the exercise as historic, underlining that not all taxpayers are evaders and that the objective should be to ensure lawful revenue collection while protecting citizens’ rights.