The Supreme Court said that harassment of any person cannot be allowed due to ambiguity in the provisions of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The court said that people cannot be sent behind bars in all related cases.
The Supreme Court has sought notices and details of arrests from the central government under the GST provisions. The Supreme Court said it can interpret the law and formulate appropriate guidelines to protect against any harassment.
A special bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice MM Sundarsh ​​and Justice Bela M Trivedi gave these directions while hearing 281 petitions challenging various provisions of the GST Act, the Customs Act and the PMLA. There was also the issue of ambiguity in Section 69 For the GST Act, which deals with powers of arrest, the bench told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju that if necessary, it will interpret the law to strengthen the freedom of citizens, the bench said, distinguishing between cases of fraud and inadvertent omissions harmless
The bench directed the Center to present the data related to notices and arrests issued under the GST Act for defaults of Rs 1 to 5 crore in the last three years. As mentioned, notifications and arrests may lead to harassment of people. If we feel there is an ambiguity in the instruction, we will correct it. The court said, in the PMLA case, the court made it mandatory to give the reason for arrest in writing. This can also be done under GST. The ASG said he would try to answer the court’s questions on May 9.
threatened with arrest
The bench sought figures from the government after the arguments of senior counsel for the petitioners, Siddharth Luthra. Luthra accused the authority of misusing powers under the GST Act. Said, it curtails the freedom of individuals. Luthra said, they are sometimes harassed with threats of detention.
It is difficult to get data for countries: Central
ASG Raju said, he will collect data regarding notices and arrests issued under the Central GST Act, but it will be difficult to collect information related to states. On this the bench said, we want complete data. The GST Council will have this data. We want to see it.
