Whether order passed in file is issued and served

It is plain that the mere passing of an order of dismissal would not be effective unless it is published and communicated to the officer concerned.  An order ordinarily would be presumed to have been made when it is signed. Once it is signed and an entry in that regard is made in the requisite register kept and maintained in terms of the provisions of a statute, the same cannot be changed or altered. It, subject to the other provisions contained in the Act, attains finality. Where, however, communication of an order is a necessary ingredient for bringing an end-result to a status or to provide a person an opportunity to take recourse of law if he is aggrieved thereby; the order is required to be communicated.State of Punjab vs. Amar Singh Harika – AIR 1966 SC 1313 

Once an order is issued and it is sent out to the concerned Government servant, it must be held to have been communicated to him, no matter when he actually received it. Difficult to accept the view that it is only from the date of the actual receipt by him that the order becomes effective. If that be the true meaning of communication, it would be possible for a Government servant to effectively thwart an order by avoiding receipt of it by one method or the other till after the date of his retirement even though such an order is passed and despatched to him before such date. An officer against whom action is sought to be taken, thus, may go away from the address given by him for service of such orders or may deliberately give a wrong address and thus prevent or delay its receipt and be able to defeat its service on him. Such a meaning of the word ‘communication’ ought not to be given unless the provision in question expressly so provides. State of Punjab vs. Khemi Ram [(1969) 3 SCC 28

 An assessment order can be said to be made or passed by simply retaining it on file without it being dispatched within the period of limitation. Printtech vs. State of Haryana – [2015] 80 VST 351 (P&H)