Mr. Shravan. A. Mehra, Mr. Anil. k. Mehra Versus Superintendent of Central Tax, Anti-evasion, GST Commissionerate, Bangalore East
GST
2019 (3) TMI 431 – KARNATAKA HIGH COURT – 2019 (23) G. S. T. L. 449 (Kar.)
KARNATAKA HIGH COURT – HC
Dated:- 19-2-2019
Criminal Petition No. 979\/2019 c\/w Criminal Petition No. 980\/2019
GST
Mr. Justice B.A. Patil
\nFor the Petitioners : Sri. Ravi. B. Naik, Senior Counsel For Sri, Achappa P B, Advocate
\nFor the Respondent : Sri. Jeevan. J. Neeralgi, Standing Counsel
\nORDER
\nThese two petitions have been filed by the petitioners under Section 438 of Cr.P.C., to release them on bail in O.R.No.40\/2018-19 for the offence punishable under Section 132 of Central Goods and Services Tax Act (hereinafter in short called as G.S.T.Act).
\n2. I have heard Sri. Ravi.B.Naik, learned senior counsel for the petitioners and Sri. Jeevan.J.Neeralgi, learned standing counsel for GST Commissionerate.
\n3.The gist of the allegation made against the petitioner<\/p>\n
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Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n amount to an offence under Section 132 of the G.S.T. Act. He further submitted that the alleged offences are not punishable with death or imprisonment for life. The maximum punishment which is liable to be imposed is five years and fine, even in the said Act, the offence is compoundable with the Commissioner, who has initiated the said proceedings, which clearly goes to show the intention of the Legislature was to encourage the tax payers and not to penalize. It is his further submission that the object of the G.S.T.Act is to encourage trading and not to curtail the business of the traders. He further submitted that petitioners are ready to abide by any terms and conditions imposed on them by this Court and ready to offer sureties. On the segrounds, he prayed to allow the petitions and to release the petitioners on anticipatory bail. = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n er submitted that investigation is still in progress and some more facts of the case should be traced. If the petitioners are released on bail, there is every likelihood of tampering prosecution evidence, they may abscond and they may not be available for trial. On these grounds, he prayed to dismiss the petitions. = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n re liable to confiscation under this Act or the rules made thereunder; = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n ence under this section, then, he shall be punishable for the second and for every subsequent offence with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and with fine. = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n e (l) which are relatable to offences specified in clauses (a) to (f) of the said sub-section; = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n rmanent Account Number shall be issued a certificate of registration on provisional basis, subject to such conditions and in such form and manner as may be prescribed, which unless replaced by a final certificate of registration under sub-section (2), shall be liable to be cancelled if the conditions so prescribed are not complied with. = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n Plain text (Extract) only<\/strong> = = = = = = = =<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mr. Shravan. A. Mehra, Mr. Anil. k. Mehra Versus Superintendent of Central Tax, Anti-evasion, GST Commissionerate, Bangalore EastGST2019 (3) TMI 431 – KARNATAKA HIGH COURT – 2019 (23) G. S. T. L. 449 (Kar.)KARNATAKA HIGH COURT – HCDated:- 19-2-2019Criminal Petition No. 979\/2019 c\/w Criminal Petition No. 980\/2019 GSTMr. Justice B.A. Patil For the Petitioners : … Continue reading “Mr. Shravan. A. Mehra, Mr. Anil. k. Mehra Versus Superintendent of Central Tax, Anti-evasion, GST Commissionerate, Bangalore East”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodsandservicetax.in\/GST\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n5. Per contra, learned standing counsel by filing the statement of objections submitted that the investigation is carried by the respondent and it revea<\/p>\n
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\n6. I have carefully and cautiously gone through the submissions made by the learned counsel appearing for the parties and perused the records.
\n7. Further for the purpose of brevity I quote Sections 132, 138 and 139 of the G.S.T.Act are extracted, which reads as under:
\n “132. Punishment for certain offences
\n (1) Whoever commits any of the following offences, namely:-
\n (a) supplies any goods or services or both without issue of any invoice, in violation of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder, with the intention to evade tax;
\n (b) issues any invoice or bill without supply of goods or services or both in violation of the provisions of this Act, or the r<\/p>\n
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\n (i) receives or is in any way concerned with the supply of, or in any other manner deals with any supply of services which he knows or has reasons to believe are in contravention of any provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder;
\n (j) tampers with or destroys any material evidence or documents;
\n (k) fails to supply any information which he is required to supply under this Act or the rules made thereunder or (unless with a reasonable belief, the burden of proving which shall be upon him, that the information supplied by him is true) supplies false information; or
\n (l) attempts to commit, or abets the commission of any of the offences mentioned in clauses (a) to (k)of this section, shall be punishable
\n (i) in cases where the amount of tax evaded or the amount of input tax credit wrongly availed or utilised or the amount of refund wrongly taken exceeds five hundred lakh rupees, with imprisonment for a te<\/p>\n
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\n (3) The imprisonment referred to in clauses (i), (ii) and (iii) of sub-section (1) and sub-section (2) shall, in the absence of special and adequate reasons to the contrary to be recorded in the judgment of the Court, be for a term not less than six months.
\n (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), all offences under this Act, except the offences referred to in sub-section (5) shall be non-cognizable and bailable.
\n (5) The offences specified in clause (a) or clause (b) or clause (c) or clause (d) of sub-section (1) and punishable under clause (i) of that sub-section shall be cognizable and non-bailable.
\n (6) A person shall not be prosecuted for any offence under this section except with the previous sanction of the Commissioner.
\n Explanation: For the purpo<\/p>\n
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\n (b) a person who has been allowed to compound once in respect of any offence, other than those inclause (a), under this Act or under the provisions of any State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act or the Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act in respect of supplies of value exceeding one crore rupees;
\n (c) a person who has been accused of committing an offence under this Act which is also an offence under any other law for the time being in force;
\n (d) a person who has been convicted for an offence under this Act by a court;
\n (e) a person who has been accused of committing an offence specified in clause (g) or clause (j) orclause (k) of sub-section (1) of section 132; and
\n (f) any other class of persons or offences as may be prescribed:
\n PROVIDED FURTHER that any compounding allowed under the provisions of this section shall not affect the procee<\/p>\n
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\n (2) The final certificate of registration shall be granted in such form and manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.
\n (3) The certificate of registration issued to a person under sub-section (1) shall be deemed to have not been issued if the said registration is cancelled in pursuance of an application filed by such person that he was not liable to registration under section 22 or section 24.”
\n8. On close reading of the above said Sections, the maximum punishment provided under the Act is five years and fine and if that is taken into consideration, the magnitude of the alleged offence and it is not punishable with death or impriso<\/p>\n
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