New Delhi, Feb 27 The Supreme Court on Thursday extended the provisions for anticipatory bail to offences under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act and the Customs Act, allowing an accused to seek pre-arrest bail even before the registration of an FIR.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, and Justices M.M. Sundresh and Bela Trivedi held that provisions of the CrPC and the subsequent law, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), on issues like anticipatory bail would be applicable to persons arrested under the Customs and the GST Acts.
The apex court noted that Section 69 of the GST Act allows for arrest only in cases of serious offences involving tax evasion or fraud exceeding specified monetary thresholds. It stressed that arrests under the GST Act should not be routine and must be based on credible material.
The top court said there was no scope for diluting the inbuilt safeguards under Article 21 and Article 22 at the time of arrest under both GST Act and the Customs Act.
On Thursday, the apex court overruled a two-judge bench judgment in State of Gujarat versus Choodamani Parmeshwaran Iyer which previously held that the power to arrest under the GST Act is statutory and should not be ordinarily interfered with by High Courts under writ jurisdiction.
The court was deciding a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Sections 69 and 70 of the GST Act. It had reserved its verdict on May 16 last year.
The petitioners claimed that the penal provisions in the Customs Act and the GST Act were non-compatible with the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Constitution.
The main petition was filed by Radhika Agarwal in 2018.
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