TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (12) TMI 1448
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....ble under Sections 132(1)(b), (c), (e) & (1) of CGST Act and Section 132(1)(i) of the CGST Act and Section 132(1)(i) of Punjab State Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017, both read with Section 20 of Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act 2017. Against the abovementioned arrest by the complainant, the petitioner has approached this Court for grant of bail by invoking the provisions comprised under Section 483 of the 'Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023'. 2. The pith and substance of the facts, which can be extracted, from record are that the FIR of this case came into being when on 07.01.2025, a search, as per Section 67 of the CGST Act, was conducted at the principal place of business of petitioner, i.e. 'M/s Sijjan Fabricators', bearing GSTIN No.03AYOPJ2270R1ZY, situated at 134, Industrial Area-A, Millerganj, Ludhiana, Punjab. According to complainant, the abovementioned search continued till early morning of 08.01.2025, and that during the abovementioned search, the petitioner was not present in the premises. As per complainant, the petitioner was telephonically called to join the search proceedings, which had resulted into recovery incriminating material and that a panchnama ....
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.... learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that an opposite view of the ground situation, has been taken by the complainant, whereas the voluntary act of the petitioner should have been appreciated, and if any deficiency in the stock or any other document was found, on payment of tax the same should have been exonerated/ignored. 7. It has been further contended by learned counsel for the petitioner that right from the intervening night of 07/08th January, 2025, when search was conducted in the petitioner's company, the petitioner has been cooperating with the authorities, and he had submitted the entire record pertaining to business to the authorities, which was taken into custody on 08.01.2025. As per learned counsel for the petitioner, subsequent thereto also till his arrest on 08.07.2025, the petitioner was constantly appearing before the GST authorities, as and when instructed by them, and that he had never evaded any summons issued to him. According to learned counsel for the petitioner, despite full cooperation extended by the petitioner during the course of enquiries, without any reasonable and plausible explanation, the petitioner has been arrested. 8. In addition....
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.... books and stocks were exposed, the petitioner voluntarily made the payment of requisite tax amount through two accounts. 12. According to learned counsel for the respondents, it is an admitted case of the petitioner that vide DRC-03, he had made payment of GST at the time of search on account of shortage of stocks, and on account of having availed 'ITC'. It has been claimed by the complainant that the abovementioned payments were made by the petitioner voluntarily, and that the abovementioned payment by the petitioner clearly establishes the guilt of the petitioner, which renders him liable to be prosecuted under the CGST Act. As per learned counsel for the respondents, on arrival of petitioner at the premises, it was found that the petitioner had deliberately deleted WhatsApp chats, WhatsApp call logs, and normal call logs from his phone, immediately before joining the investigation. 13. In addition to above, the learned counsel for the respondents has also contended that in the present case this fact cannot be ignored that the petitioner had been creating false documents for the purpose of playing fraud with the GST Department, and when his misdeeds were exposed, he starte....
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....tion here that the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the case of Radhika Agarwal (supra) has propounded that 'the arrest must proceed on the belief supported by reasons relying on material that the conditions specified in Section 132(5) are satisfied, and not on suspicion alone. An arrest cannot be made to merely investigate whether the conditions are being met. The arrest is to be made on the formulation of the opinion by the Commissioner, which is to be duly recorded in the reasons to believe. The reasons to believe must be based on the evidence establishing-to the satisfaction of the Commissioner - that the requirements of sub-section (5) to Section 132 of the GST Act are met'. 18. It has also been observed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the abovementioned case that 'the figures with regard to the tax demand and the tax collected would, in fact, indicate some force in the petitioners' submission that the assessees are compelled to pay tax as a condition for not being arrested. Sub-section (5) to Section 74 of the GST Acts gives an option to the assessee and does not confer any right on the tax authorities to compel or extract tax by threatening arrest. This woul....
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....erved that "a fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a person is believed to be innocent until found guilty. However, there are instances in our criminal law where a reverse onus has been placed on an accused with regard to some specific offences but that is another matter and does not detract from the fundamental postulate in respect of other offences. Yet another important facet of our criminal jurisprudence is that the grant of bail is the general rule and putting a person in jail or in a prison or in a correction home (whichever expression one may wish to use) is an exception. Unfortunately, some of these basic principles appear to have been lost sight of with the result that more and more persons are being incarcerated and for longer periods. This does not do any good to our criminal jurisprudence or to our society. There is no doubt that the grant or denial of bail is entirely the discretion of the judge considering a case but even so, the exercise of judicial discretion has been circumscribed by a large number of decisions rendered by this Court and by every High Court in the country. Yet, occasionally there is a....