The Delhi High Court has sought the Centre and Directorate General of GST Intelligence’s (DGGI) reply on a plea challenging the constitutional validity of various provisions of the Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) Act, relating to the power of arresting a person.
The petition was filed by Arun Gupta, director of Transline Technologies Pvt Ltd, also seeking direction to the authorities to comply with the mandatory procedure under the CrPC for valid commencement of investigation into any offence qua him.
“Making an offence amounts to enacting criminal law and Section 69 & 132 of the CGST Act, 2017 could not have been enacted to the general power to levy tax under Article 246A of the Constitution and thus enacting such provision is beyond the legislative competence”, the petition reads.
The DGGI has alleged that the petitioner was guilty of issuing fake invoices without the supply of goods and having allegedly committed offences under the CGST Act amounting to Rs.13 crore.
The petitioner sought direction to the authorities that no coercive action be taken against him in relation to the investigation pending against Transline Technologies.
The high court directed the authorities not to arrest Gupta till the next date of hearing, December 22 and to de-seal his house and godown.
A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula issued notice to the central government and the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) on the plea seeking to declare sections 69 and 132 of the CGST Act as unconstitutional, illegal, unenforceable and ultra vires to the Constitution.
