T HC upholds SGST notices without digital signs, bins 500 pleas | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: n 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.The petitioners, including individual merchants and firms, had contended that notices and orders issued under the TGST Act were invalid in the absence of a digital signature. They relied on previous HC rulings in support of their argument.They further contended that some documents displayed messages such as “signature invalid” or “not verified”. They also argued that the notices had been uploaded under the “additional notices and orders” tab, that no Digital Identification Number (DIN) had been mentioned, and that no prior intimation or scrutiny had preceded the issuance of the notices.The state govt, however, countered that the rules relied upon by the petitioners fall under the chapter dealing with registration and do not apply to demand and assessment proceedings.Appearing for the state tax department, special govt pleader for state tax ,Swaroop Oorilla, argued that officers can issue notices only after logging into the GST portal using a digital key. He submitted that the digital signature may not be displayed if the user’s software is not updated.Oorilla further submitted that the department had demonstrated this process before the court on Sept 18, 2025. He also pointed out that the GST Network (GSTN) had clarified in Sept 2024 that portal-generated documents do not require a physical signature.“The attachments to both forms carry physical signatures, and petitioners have shown no prejudice,” Oorilla submitted.The state also argued that a CBIC circular issued in June 2025 exempts portal-generated communications from the requirement of a DIN.It further submitted that the provision relating to prior intimation became optional from Oct 15, 2020, and that scrutiny is not a mandatory precondition for issuing notices.The govt maintained that uploading documents on the GST portal constitutes valid service under the Act. It also argued that the petitioners should have approached the statutory appellate authority rather than filing the petitions before the HC.
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