The Allahabad High Court held that the seizure of vehicle without notice transporting goods affects civil rights of transporter as truck is the capital asset of transporter.
The petitioner is aggrieved by the seizure of his vehicle. The proceedings have arisen under Section 129 of the U.P. Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (‘GST Act’) primarily against the goods found loaded on the above truck that was intercepted on 22.11.2023 and consequently show cause notice on MOV-07 was issued to the dealer.
In any case, no show cause notice was issued to the petitioner to show cause why the truck in question may not be seized. Thus, it has been submitted that the seizure of the truck arising out of the order dated 5.12.2023 passed on MOV-09 being the penalty order is wholly ex-parte against the petitioner.
A Division Bench of Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh and Justice Manjive Shukla noted that “By virtue of the statutory law, the petitioner may not be entitled to release of the truck unless he deposits Rs. One lakh as provided under proviso-1 of Section 129 (6) of the Act. In such facts, it appears that the petitioner is entitled to one opportunity of hearing before the authority to furnish his explanation and to establish the fact that there was no connivance of the petitioner or no active role played by the petitioner in the illegality that are attributed to the dealer viz-a-viz the goods being transported on the truck in question. At present, the penalty order does not appear to bring out any conduct of the petitioner as may indicate or establish collusion between the petitioner and the importing dealer M/s Royal India Enterprises.”
The Bench held that the Truck being the valuable property and a capital asset of the transporter which is utilised to generate revenue/ income, we perceive valuable civil right of the petitioner having being adversely affected exparte and also provided certain conditions for the release of the vehicle.
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