Bail in case of offences which are punishable under Section 132(1)(b) and (c) of the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Case Details:

Issue- In the above case, Assessee was in custody for more than 90 days for the offences punishable under Section 132(1)(b) and (c) of the Act alleged as involved in the fake billing and charge sheet has already been filed after due investigation, therefore, through this writ petition, Assessee prays that he be enlarged on regular bail.

Held- It was held that Applicant was arrested for commission of offences punishable under sections 16 & 132(1)(b) & (c) of the GST Act. Section 138 of the GST Act deals with compounding of offences. Offence registered against applicant under section 132 (1) of the GST Act is made compoundable by the Commissioner on making payment to the Central Government or State Government either before or after institution of prosecution. In case at hand, case is instituted against applicant and he was arrested. Though allegation against applicant is of committing economic offence, but considering provisions of the GST Act, particularly Section 138 of the GST Act and quantum of input tax credit stated to have been wrongly availed/utilized, and period of detention of applicants i.e. from 20-7-2021, charge sheet after due investigation is filed, keeping in mind dictum of Hon’ble Supreme Court in cases of Gurbaksh Singh Sibbia v. State of Punjab [1980] 2 SCC 565; Sanjay Chandra v. CBI [2012] 1 SCC 40; P. Chidambaram v. Directorate of Enforcement [2019] 109 taxmann.com 57/156 SCL 104, without commenting anything on merits of case, this court is inclined to enlarge applicants on regular bail. Accordingly, application was allowed, and it is directed that applicant shall be released on regular bail on their furnishing a personal bond in the sum of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh) with one surety in the like sum to satisfaction of trial Court concerned on the conditions that he shall appear before the trial Court concerned regularly on each & every date unless exempted from appearance.(b) he shall not, in any manner, tamper with prosecution witnesses.(c) If applicant are found involved in similar offence in future, it will be open for the State to apply for cancellation of bail.