VEER PRATAB SINGH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are dealers, inter alia, in brass and copper scraps, having their business concern in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and Jamnagar, Gujarat, respectively. A consignment of scrap that was being transported from Coimbatore to Gujarat from the 1st petitioner, as consigner, to the 2nd petitioner, as consignee, was detained by the respondents at Kodumuda in Palakkad. The detention notice issued to the petitioners indicates that the reason for detention was that the documents that accompanied the transportation of the goods were found to be defective. The consignment in question was accompanied by a tax invoice and an e-way bill that showed payment of IGST as also that the transportation of the goods was from Coimbatore to Gujarat. The respondents, however, obtained evidence that suggested that the loading of the consignment was effected in Palakkad, within the State of Kerala, and not in Coimbatore. While the detention of the goods may have been justified on the said ground, and based on the material available with the respondents to suggest that the transportation shown in the e-way bill was not the actual transportation of the goods in question, the respondents went further, and invoked the provisions of Section 130 of the GST Act, to serve a notice in FORM GST MOV-10 on the petitioners. While the petitioners submitted their replies to the said notice, and thereafter appeared before the respondents for a hearing in connection with the said notice, their contentions were rejected, and an order of confiscation was passed under Section 130 of the CGST Act, confiscating the goods and the vehicle. In the writ petition, the petitioners impugn the confiscation order passed against them by the respondents.

(2.) The learned Government Pleader would rely on the documents produced by her along with memos to show that there was ample material available with the Department to proceed against the petitioners in terms of Section 130 of the GST Act.

(3.) I have heard Dr.Sri.K.P.Pradeep, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and also Dr.Smt.Thushara James, the learned Government Pleader appearing for the official respondents of the State.