TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (3) TMI 1046
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....he Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (in short "CGST Act, 2017"). The petitioner, by way of this petition, is seeking a declaration that search and seizure proceedings carried out on 18.10.2024 and 19.102024 be declared illegal, null and void and also quash all the consequential proceedings. The petitioner is further seeking direction to the respondents to return all the document books, accounts and records seized during the search etc. Facts of the case, in short, are as follows :- 3. The petitioner is a Proprietary Firm possessing an MSME registration certificate under the "Micro" category and carrying on business as a Retail Trader primarily of Ceramic Tiles, besides Sanitary Fittings. The petitioner is also registered under the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and has been regularly filing the GST Returns since registration. 4. On 18.10.2024 at around 01:00 P.M., the Officers of Central GST conducted a search and raid in the business premises, residential premises and three godowns (shared by the petitioner with other firms run by his relatives i.e. father and brother), the details of which are as under:- a. Showroom of M/s Avi Enterprises, situated at ....
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....les Bills and Challan Registers relating to two other businesses run by family members of the petitioner, namely; M/s Goura Traders run by his brother and M/s Ria Enterprises run by his Father. The respondents also took the printout of many ledgers and data relating to the purchase and sale of the goods and stock from the computer. They also extracted the data from the computer on pen-drive which they subsequently sealed and seized. 9. The search continued on 19.10.2010 in the godown at Kolar, Bhopal, in which the petitioner extended his full cooperation. The petitioner requested Respondent No.2 for the de-sealing of their godown because their trading activities had come to a halt due to the seizure of goods and sealing of the godown. The petitioner also requested for providing copies of the complete documents relating to the search and seizure and the remaining panchnama, which were not already provided in terms of Section 67 of the GST Act, 2017. According to the petitioner, the Respondent No.2 also advised to deposit at least Rs. 40 Lakhs as a voluntary deposit of tax. 10. The Investigating Officer issued a summons under Section 70 of the CGST Act, 2017 on 11.11.2024, call....
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....cers were authorised by the Joint Commissioner, CGST, Bhopal, for searching Section 67(2) of the GST Act, 2017 at the registered premises as well as the unregistered godown. The Joint Commissioner, CGST, Bhopal, is a proper officer for the issuance of such authorisation under Section 67(2) of the CGST Act, 2017. It is further submitted that the respondent Department has reasons to believe that the petitioner, along with two related firms, namely M/s Goura Traders, Bhopal and M/s Ria Enterprises, are engaged in clandestine supply of ceramic tiles, sanitary fittings etc., without issuing any tax invoice and applying their taxable turnover and their evading of tax. The taxable goods were seized under INS02 of the panchnama dated 18.10.2024 and 19.10.2024. 15. It is a case of the respondent that during the search, approximately thirteen thousand boxes of ceramic tiles of a different brand were found kept in a secret, undeclared, unregistered godown, which were not added in the GST registration as an additional premises of the business, therefore, the GST, Bhopal had reasons to believe that the said goods were stored at premises without having any valid document for evasion of tax li....
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.... the jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution. One of the principles is that of judicial restraint. This Court held that : (SCC pp. 676, 678, 680- 81 & 687, paras 73-74, 78, 80, 82 & 94) "73. Observance of judicial restraint is currently the mood in England. The judicial power of review is exercised to rein in any unbridled executive functioning. The restraint has two contemporary manifestations. One is the ambit of judicial intervention; the other covers the scope of the court's ability to quash an administrative decision on its merits. These restraints bear the hallmarks of judicial control over administrative action. 74. Judicial review is concerned with reviewing not the merits of the decision in support of which the application for judicial review is made, but the decision-making process itself. *** 78. What is this charming principle of Wednesbury [Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd. v. Wednesbury Corpn., (1948) 1 KB 223 (CA)] unreasonableness? Is it a magical formula? In R. v. Askew [R. v. Askew, (1768) 4 Burr 2186 : 98 ER 139], Lord Mansfield considered the question whether mandamus should be granted against the Colleg....
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....I have very few illusions about my own limitations as a Judge and from those limitations I generalise to the inherent limitations of all appellate courts reviewing rate cases. It must be remembered that this Court sees approximately 1262 cases a year with five Judges. I am not an accountant, electrical engineer, financier, banker, stock broker, or systems management analyst. It is the height of folly to expect Judges intelligently to review a 5000 page record addressing the intricacies of public utility operation." It is not the function of a Judge to act as a superboard, or with the zeal of a pedantic schoolmaster substituting its judgment for that of the administrator. The result is a theory of review that limits the extent to which the discretion of the expert may be scrutinised by the non-expert Judge. The alternative is for the court to overrule the agency on technical matters where all the advantages of expertise lie with the agencies. If a court were to review fully the decision of a body such as State board of medical examiners "it would find itself wandering amid the maze of therapeutics or boggling at the mysteries of the pharmacopoeia". Such a situation....