Commissioner of Central Tax Vs Adesh Jain (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court dismissed a petition filed by the Commissioner of Central Tax challenging the statutory bail granted to Adesh Jain in connection with a ₹200 crore fake GST invoice case. Jain, along with a co-accused, allegedly generated fake invoices through dummy entities to pass on undue Input Tax Credit (ITC) to various firms without actual goods being supplied. Despite Jain’s arrest, the investigation was not completed within the mandated 60-day period, leading to his application for statutory bail under Section 167(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which was eventually granted. The prosecution’s argument was that once bail had been canceled by a lower court, the accused should not benefit from Section 167(2). However, the court rejected this, stating that the statutory bail provision is a constitutional right when the investigation remains incomplete within the specified time.
The High Court noted with concern that despite the serious allegations of tax evasion and misuse of ITC, the petitioner department had failed to file a complaint in the five years since the arrest. The court highlighted that the prosecution seemed more interested in keeping the accused in custody rather than pursuing the case to its logical conclusion. It dismissed the petition, citing it as an abuse of judicial process and upholding the statutory bail granted to Jain. The ruling emphasized that once the investigation period lapses without a filed complaint, the accused is entitled to bail as a constitutional right under Section 167(2).
