The Gujarat High Court held that the Application for provisional release of goods seized upon execution of a bond and furnishing of a security under section 67(6) can be preferred only after filing an appeal.
The petitioner, Jay Goga Traders prayed before the court to issue directions in the nature of mandamus to quash the order issued by the respondent authority for confiscation of perishable goods and levy of penalty under Section 130 of the GST Act and further direct the Respondent authorities to release perishable goods.
It was further played by the petitioner to grant an interim relief directing the respondent to provisionally release the perishable goods detained/seized in purported exercise of powers under section 129 and 130 of the GST Act.
The division bench headed by Chief Justice Vikram Nath held that application under section 67(6) CGST Act, 2017 could have been preferred only after filing of the appeal under Section 107 of the Act.
The court further said that be that as it may, if an appeal is filed, the authority concerned shall immediately take up the application filed by the writ applicant for provisional release of goods and conveyance under Section 67(6) of the Act and pass appropriate order in accordance with law, within a period of 8 days thereafter.
“We clarify that we have, otherwise, not gone into the merits of the matter. In view of the above, the writ application stands disposed off. Mr. Chintan Dave, the learned Assistant Government Pleader is requested to communicate this order to the authority concerned so that there may not be any further delay in passing an order on the application under Section 67(6) of the Act,” the court said.
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