Kerala High Court: Raja Vijayaraghavan V, J. allowed a civil writ petition filed by a company and directed release of its vehicles and goods that had been detained by the tax officer due to the expiry of its e-way bills.
Petitioner herein was a logistics company which was involved in the transportation of Maruti cars. Petitioner’s vehicle was obstructed, and on inspection, it was found that the validity of the e-way bills had expired. Hence, both – the vehicle and the goods – were detained. This had led to the filing of this writ petition seeking a certiorari quashing of notice issued under Section 129 of Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 whereby his goods were seized; and sought a writ of mandamus directing the 1st respondent to release the goods by accepting a penalty of Rs 500.
The Court relied on the earlier judgment of a Division Bench in Renji Lal Damodaran v. State Tax Officer (Order dated 06-08-2018 in WA No. 1640 of 2018) in which it was directed to release the goods of the appellant furnishing bank guarantee for tax and penalty found due and a bond for the value of goods in the form as prescribed under Rule 140(1) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017. So, applying the ratio of that judgment, the Court directed the respondent authorities to release the petitioner’s goods and vehicle on the execution of a bank guarantee for tax and penalty found due, and a bond for the value of goods in the form as prescribed under Rule 140(1) of the CGST Rules.
This petition was disposed of in the above terms.[OSL Logistics Private Ltd. v. Assistant State Tax Officer, 2019 SCC OnLine Ker 1554, decided on 14-05-2019]
What happened after release of goods on submitting bank gurantee? Courts are sleeping on GST matters! Field officer have field days. Council do not respond. Even letters to Finance Minister find in dust bina God knows what will happen.