Case Law Details
Deepak Kumar Vs State of Punjab (Punjab and Haryana High Court)
Punjab and Haryana High Court held that if a special provision has been made qua a particular subject (here Value Added Tax), the said subject is excluded from the general provisions (here, Indian Penal Code). Since the provisions of the VAT Act do not provide for the registration of the FIR and the said Act is a Code in itself, the provisions of the IPC also cannot be invoked.
Facts-
The petitioner while praying for quashing of the FIR and consequential proceedings contends that no offence under the IPC was made out. Secondly, even if the allegations as levelled in the FIR were taken to be true, no criminal offence could be said to be made out, since if anybody enters into the State of Punjab from any other State through an unauthorized passage to evade tax, then only penal provisions of penalty etc. are provided under the VAT Act and that too if the person was apprehended at the spot along with the goods. At best, it was a case of civil nature as was provided under the Punjab VAT Act. Even otherwise, the petitioner was not arrested at the spot and the allegations against him are that he was in connivance with the arrested accused Narinder Singh. As per the provisions of the Act, a person without documents or with no genuine documents carrying the articles in the goods vehicle is liable to be punished with penalty of 30% of the value of the goods.
Conclusion-
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