Keyur Jayendrabhai Patel Vs State of Gujarat (Gujarat High Court)
Habeas Corpus Petition Dismissed Because GST Authorities Complied With Section 69 Requirements; No Illegal GST Arrest Found Because Reasons to Believe Matched Official Records; Verbatim Signed Copy of Reasons to Believe Not Mandatory Under GST Law; Gujarat HC Rejects Challenge to GST Arrest Because Grounds of Arrest Were Supplied.
The Gujarat High Court considered a writ petition challenging the legality of the petitioner’s arrest and remand proceedings in connection with an investigation under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. The petitioner sought declaration that the arrest, detention, and remand proceedings were illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional, and contrary to Section 69 of the CGST Act.
The petitioner restricted the challenge to the alleged non-compliance with Section 69 of the CGST Act. It was argued that the Commissioner had not properly recorded “reasons to believe” before authorizing the arrest, and that the reasons supplied to the petitioner were not signed by the Commissioner but by another officer. According to the petitioner, Section 69 specifically empowers only the Commissioner to record such reasons, unlike certain provisions under other statutes where powers may be exercised by authorized officers. The petitioner contended that furnishing a verbatim copy of the “reasons to believe” recorded by the Commissioner was mandatory to enable effective challenge to the arrest.
