Release of Detained Goods: E-Way Bill Discrepancy Resolved

The court ordered the release of goods detained due to an e-Way bill discrepancy. If the petitioner paid the IGST based on the original e-Way bill value, goods would be released upon executing a bond; otherwise, a bank guarantee was required.

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Issues:
Detention of goods due to discrepancy in e-Way bill.

Analysis:
The petitioner's goods were detained because of a mistake in the e-Way bill. The first e-Way bill mentioned the place of delivery as 'Payhanamthitta' and the value of goods as Rs. 3882200. Subsequently, a corrected e-Way bill was generated with the place of delivery correctly shown as 'Pathanamthitta', but the value of goods was mistakenly mentioned as Rs. 388220 instead of Rs. 3882200. The detention of goods was based on this discrepancy.

The court noted that if a human error that is visible to the naked eye is detected, it should not be used for penalization. While normally the court would only order the release of the goods against a bank guarantee, in this case, the court decided to take a different approach. The court stated that if the petitioner had paid the IGST in accordance with the value shown in the original e-Way bill, the goods should be released to the petitioner.

The court issued orders that upon verification, if it is confirmed that the petitioner had paid the IGST based on the value shown in the original e-Way bill, the vehicle and goods should be released to the petitioner by executing a simple bond. However, if it is found that the IGST was not paid according to the value in the original e-Way bill, then the goods and vehicle should be released only upon furnishing a bank guarantee. The writ petition was disposed of accordingly.

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