DEEPAK SINGHAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein has filed the present petition seeking following reliefs from this court:-

(2.) Brief facts of the case necessary for the disposal of present petition are as hereunder:-

(3.) Learned Counsel for the Petitioner has submitted that GST Act, 2017 is a complete code which provides for procedure to be adopted by GST Authorities, penalties in case of breach of provisions of GST Act and punishment for offences committed under GST Act. It is further submitted that admittedly in the case at hand, search and seizure operations conducted by GST Authorities under Sec. 67(2) of GST Act revealed commission of offence which is punishable under Sec. 132 of GST Act and hence, GST being a special statute, any offence which is squarely covered by the GST Act, provisions of IPC could not have been invoked without invoking the provisions of GST Act and hence registration of FIR at the instance of GST Authorities under provisions of Indian Penal Code without invoking penal provisions under GST Act is bad in law and the FIR and consequential proceedings are liable to be quashed on this ground. It is further submitted that Sec. 132(6) of GST Act requires previous sanction of the Commissioner before a person can be prosecuted for offences committed under Sec. 132 of GST Act and GST Authorities in order to bypass such procedural safeguard have gotten FIR registered under the penal provisions of IPC without invoking penal provisions under GST Act which cannot be permitted and hence on this ground also, FIR and consequential proceedings are liable to be quashed. In support of his submission, Learned Counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on judgment of Hon'ble apex court in Sharat Babu Digumarti Vs. Government (NCT of Delhi) 2017 (2) SCC 18.