Madhya Pradesh High Court Advises GST Department To Send SMS/Email Alerts For Hearing Dates

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has advised the GST Department to introduce SMS or email alerts to parties or their advocates about hearing dates, after noting that many taxpayers were approaching the court complaining that they had not been served with hearing notices.

A Division Bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar and Justice Alok Awasthi made the suggestion while allowing a petition filed by Maple Overseas Trade Private Limited.

The court set aside the dismissal of the company's appeal against a GST demand of about ₹81.46 lakh and directed the Appellate Authority to decide it afresh.

The bench noted that “many such cases” were being filed before the High Court in which assessees complained that they had not been served with hearing notices by the Department. It said an additional mechanism of sending SMS or email alerts could help prevent such litigation.

The court suggested, “Thus, in order to avoid such unpleasant situation in future, we also advise the Department to introduce such simple procedure of service of notice, in addition to the existing procedure, such as sending an SMS/e-mail to the party/Advocate about the date of hearing, which would solve unnecessary litigation on technical grounds.”

The case concerned a GST demand of ₹81,46,488 against Maple Overseas Trade. The company had challenged the demand before the Appellate Authority after making a pre-deposit of ₹6,04,788.

The company told the High Court that hearing notices had been uploaded under the “Additional Notices/Orders” tab on the GST portal, but it had no knowledge of them and was under the impression that the hearing date would be properly communicated. The appeal was subsequently dismissed for non-prosecution after three hearing notices were issued.

The High Court held that the company could not be left without a remedy when it maintained that it had not been properly informed about the hearing. The bench also noted that there was no reason for the company not to prosecute the appeal despite having made the pre-deposit.

The Court accordingly set aside the order dismissing the appeal and remanded the matter to the Appellate Authority for a fresh decision after giving the company an opportunity of hearing.

It directed the company to appear before the Appellate Authority on September 30, 2026.

For petitioner (Maple Overseas Trade Private Limited): Arpit Singh

For State: Amit Bhatia, Government Advocate,