NOUSHAD ALLAKKAT Vs. STATE TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, a dealer in timber, faces proceedings under the Goods and Services Tax Act. Purchased in Tamil Nadu and being brought to Kerala, the timber was detained under Sec. 129 of the Act, for 'the supplier's failure to collect IGST'. The petitioner has got the goods released on his furnishing the bank guarantee, though.

(2.) At any rate, faced with adverse orders, the petitioner wants to file a statutory appeal. But before it can prosecute the appeal, the 4th respondent threatens, the petitioner apprehends, to invoke the bank guarantee. So it has filed this writ petition.

(3.) According to the petitioner's counsel, the appellate forum itself was very recently created, and still the procedural mechanism has not yet been fully put in place. In the meanwhile, if the respondents invoke the bank guarantee, the petitioner's right to statutory remedy becomes illusory.