Mahavir Polyplast Pvt. Ltd. Vs State of U.P. (Allahabad High Court)
The Hon’ble Allahabad High Court in Mahavir Polyplast Pvt. Ltd. v. the State of U.P. And 2 others [Writ Tax No. 57 of 2020 and Writ Tax No. 58 of 2020 dated August 6, 2022] quashed the orders of the GST officials for seizing the goods of the assessee inside the godown without jurisdiction. The court also directed the Commissioner Commercial Tax UP to look into the matter, and take appropriate action commensurate to the misconduct, if any.
Facts:
Mahavir Polyplast Pvt. Ltd. (“the Petitioner”) is a manufacturer of PVC pipes and it has established its manufacturing unit at Tehsil-Kirawali, Agra. They store all its raw materials and manufactured goods at a godown located on the same premises.
The business premises of the Petitioner was subjected to a search and seizure operation by the Special Investigation Branch (“SIB”) of the Commercial Tax Department, Agra dated August 7, 2018 and described them as “Vahan Sankhiya UPGODOWN02” and “Vahan Sankhiya GODOWON”. A Panchnama was drawn on the same day mentioning the allegation of shortage of physical stocks as compared to that recorded in the stock registers.
Show cause notices dated August 9, 2018 and August 14, 2018 (“SCNs”) were issued by the Assistant Commissioner (Mobile Squad), Unit-II Agra, and Assistant Commissioner (Mobile Squad) -5 Agra (“the Department”) respectively under Section 129(3) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“the CGST Act”) with respect to “Vahan Sankhiya GODOWON“. Accordingly, seizure orders had been passed demanding tax and penalties.
Therefore, the Petitioner filed two writ petitions for the same.
Issue:
Whether the goods were seized without jurisdiction?
Held:
The Hon’ble High Court of Allahabad in Writ Tax No. 57 of 2020 and Writ Tax No. 58 of 2020 dated August 6, 2022, held as under:
