Recently in case of Ventrapathi Financial Services v. Superintendent of Central Excise (2015) 60 taxmann.com 11, honorable Andhra Pradesh high court held that dispatching of notice at incorrect address could not be deemed as service of notice and accordingly entire proceedings are liable to be set aside for violation of principles of natural justice.

In the instant case, assesse is a service provider and the address provided by them to the Department is Door No.46-16-14/2, Panduranga Street, Danavaipeta, Rajahmundry which is mentioned in Form ST-2, certificate of registration granted under Section 69 of the Finance Act, 1994. The fact of final order having been passed by the department came to the knowledge of the assesse only when the banker having received recovery notice dated 01.04.2015 communicated the same to the assesse through letter dated 09.04.2015. After enquiry, assesse came to know that address mentioned in the final show cause notice as well as the final order is entirely different from the address under which the petitioner-firm was registered.

Based up on this factual position, honorable high court observed non-compliance of the statutory provisions by the department in passing the order of best judgment assessment apart from violation of principles of natural justice and accordingly set aside the order passed by department.