A writ petition is not maintainable if a statutory appeal remedy exists.

A writ petition is not maintainable if a statutory appeal remedy exists.

Issue

Should a High Court entertain a writ petition challenging an adjudication order on the grounds of a violation of natural justice (specifically, improper service of a hearing notice), when a comprehensive statutory appellate remedy is available to the taxpayer under the GST Act?

Facts

• An assessee filed a writ petition directly in the High Court to challenge an adverse Order-in-Original that had been passed against them.
• The assessee’s main argument was that there had been a violation of the principles of natural justice.
• The specific claim was that the notices for the personal hearing were only uploaded to the GST portal and were not served personally. The assessee argued that this caused them to miss the hearing, which led to an ex-parte order being passed against them. They contended that this failure of service was a sufficient ground for the High Court to intervene directly and quash the order.

Decision

The High Court ruled in favour of the revenue and dismissed the writ petition.

• The court held that the assessee had an effective and comprehensive alternate remedy available to them under the law, which is to file a statutory appeal under Section 107 of the CGST Act.
• It found that the situation described by the assessee—a notice being uploaded to the portal—did not amount to a “patent breach” of the principles of natural justice that would be so egregious as to justify bypassing the statutory appeal process.
• The court clarified that the assessee was at full liberty to raise the ground of violation of natural justice as one of their arguments in the appeal filed before the Appellate Authority itself.
• The petition was therefore dismissed, with the court directing the assessee to pursue the available remedy of an appeal.

Key Takeways

1. You Must Exhaust Your Alternate Remedies First: It is a well-established legal principle that the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of a High Court should not be invoked when an equally effective alternative remedy, such as a statutory appeal, is available to the aggrieved party under the relevant law.
2. The Bar for Bypassing an Appeal is High: A writ petition is generally maintainable against an order, despite the existence of an alternative remedy, only in a few exceptional circumstances. These include a complete lack of jurisdiction by the authority, a clear violation of a fundamental right, a challenge to the constitutional validity of a law, or a “patent” and undeniable breach of the principles of natural justice.
3. Portal Upload is Generally Considered Valid Service: The court’s finding that this was not a “patent breach” of natural justice suggests its acceptance of the legal position that uploading a notice to the GST common portal is a standard and valid mode of service. A taxpayer’s failure to see such a notice is not automatically considered a gross failure of due process on the part of the department.
4. The Appellate Authority Can Also Decide on Natural Justice: The first appellate authority is empowered to decide on all grounds of appeal, which can include both the merits of the tax demand and procedural grounds, such as an alleged violation of the principles of natural justice. Therefore, it is the appropriate first forum for raising such claims.