Santosh Kumar Sah Vs Union of India & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court considered a writ petition filed by Santosh Kumar Sah seeking quashing of criminal proceedings in CR Case No. 530 of 2025, arising from a complaint dated April 1, 2025 and subsequent charge-sheet dated August 6, 2025. The proceedings concern alleged offences under Section 132(1)(b), 132(1)(c), 132(1)(i) and 132(1)(5) of the CGST Act, 2017, pending before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Siliguri. The petitioner also sought a declaration that his arrest on March 30, 2025 was illegal, unlawful and without jurisdiction.
The petitioner relied upon the CBIC circular dated July 6, 2022 concerning tax invoices issued without an underlying supply. According to the submission, where a registered person issues such an invoice to another registered person, penal action under Section 122(1)(ii) of the CGST Act is contemplated against the person issuing the invoice. The petitioner submitted that ITC Ltd. had issued the tax invoice to him and therefore penal action ought to have been initiated against ITC Ltd. instead.
The petitioner further alleged non-compliance with the prosecution-launching guidelines contained in Instruction No. 4/2022-23 dated August 1, 2022, particularly paragraph 7.1.1. It was submitted that the prosecution complaint was not filed within the timeframe indicated in the instruction and that the procedure for obtaining sanction for prosecution was also not followed.
