GST: Power of arrest to be exercised with lot of care and circumspection

Vimal Yashwantgiri Goswami Vs State of Gujarat (Gujarat High Court)

Gujarat High Court has reiterated that the power to arrest under Section 69 of the Central GST Act is to be exercised with lot of care and circumspection and that prosecution should normally be launched only after completion of adjudication. The Court directed that no coercive steps of arrest against the writ petitioner should be taken.

FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER /JUDGEMENT

1. One of the main reliefs prayed for by the writ applicant in the present writ application reads as follows :

“16(A) To issue a Writ of Mandamus and/or Writ of Prohibition and/or any other appropriate writ, order of direction, directing the respondents not to take any actions against the petitioner being proprietor of the Heugo Metal exercising powers under Section 69 read with Section 132 without following taxguru.in due procedure of law of assessment and adjudication of alleged evasion of GST as contemplated under Section 61, Section 73 of under Section 74 of the Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 i.e. before following provisions of Chapter XII of Central Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and Gujarat Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and Chapter VIII of Central Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 and Gujarat Goods and Service Tax Rules, 2017 in connection with File No.ACST/UNIT-9/2019-20/B registered with State Tax (2), Unit-9, Ahmedabad.”

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