Bail conditions cannot impose a bank guarantee in GST prosecutions where earlier precedent rejects such monetary pre-conditions.

A bank guarantee imposed as a pre-condition for bail in a prosecution under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was held unsustainable. The Court noted that earlier decisions on comparable facts had already rejected similar pre-deposit or bank-guarantee conditions, and applied that reasoning to the bail order. The monetary condition was therefore set aside, and bail was allowed without that requirement.

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Issues: Whether a bank guarantee could be imposed as a pre-condition for grant of bail in a case arising under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Analysis: The complaint arose from alleged offences under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and the applicant had been granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate subject to furnishing a bank guarantee. The High Court reduced the amount of the guarantee, but the Court noted that similar pre-deposit or bank-guarantee conditions had already been held unsustainable in earlier decisions involving comparable facts. Following that line of reasoning, the Court held that a monetary pre-condition of this nature could not be sustained as a condition for bail.

Conclusion: The bank-guarantee condition was set aside and the applicant was entitled to bail.

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