Indian Penal Code Provisions cannot be invoked for offence under Punjab VAT

In the recent case of Deepak Kumar v. State of Punjab, a truck containing furnace oil from Haryana was being driven into Punjab through abandoned passages with the purpose of evading taxes. A secret informer of the police informed regarding the same, as a result, an FIR was registered under sections 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code. The Petitioner approached the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab & Haryana and pleaded for the quashing of the FIR, on the ground that Section 51(7)(b) of the Punjab Value Added Tax Act read, “If officer finds that there has been an attempt to avoid or evade the tax due or likely to be due under this Act, he shall, by order, impose on the consignor or consignee of the goods, a penalty, which shall be equal to thirty percent of the value of the goods.” Hence the registration of an FIR or the invocation of the provisions under Indian Penal Code fell out of the scope of the act. The High Court while quashing the FIR held that, there was no provision for registration of an FIR in the VAT Act, and the provisions of the Act only provided for mandatory penalty. 

Hence making the registration of an FIR illegal in cases where there is an evasion of tax, under Punjab VAT Act. Similarly, in the case of Pritpal Singh v. State of Punjab, it was held that the provisions of the said VAT Act are sufficient and equipped to deal with the matters where an attempt is made to evade the tax. Thus, the registration of an FIR in such matters is an absolute abuse of process of law. In the case of Rakesh Kumar v. State of Punjab, it was held that that violations under the VAT Act were civil in nature and as per the provisions of Punjab Vat Act, a person without the 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, and there was no mention of registration of an FIR. 

It is a well-settled proposition of law that if a special provision has been made qua a particular subject, it is excluded from the general provisions. Since the provisions of the VAT Act sufficiently provide for alternate punitive measures,  and the said Act is a Code in itself, the provisions of the IPC cannot be invoked.