High Court Intervention - Legal Sanctity

[CA Akash Phophalia]

Goods of assessee were seized by the department in accordance with the provisions of law. The law provides for the process in respect of seizure and release of goods. However, in order to obtain quick redressal against seizure of goods assessee approached High Courts many times bypassing the provisions of law enacted in this regard. Further, High Courts instead of relegating the assessee to the appropriate extricated the assessee concerned from paying the applicable tax amount in cash.

In this respect the Supreme Court of India stated that considering the provisions of law and the rules made thereunder there is no hesitation in observing that the High Court in all such cases ought to have relegated the assessees before the Appropriate Authority for complying with the procedure prescribed in Section 67 of the Act read with the Rules as applicable for release (including provisional release) of seized goods.

The relevant provisions of law are reproduced hereunder :-

“Section 67. Power of inspection, search and seizure. - (1) Where the proper officer, not below the rank of Joint Commissioner, has reasons to believe that -

(a) a taxable person has suppressed any transaction relating to supply of goods or services or both or the stock of goods in hand, or has claimed input tax credit in excess of his entitlement under this Act or has indulged in contravention of any of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder to evade tax under this Act; or

(b) any person engaged in the business of transporting goods or an owner or operator of a warehouse or a godown or any other place is keeping goods which have escaped payment of tax or has kept his accounts or goods in such a manner as is likely to cause evasion of tax payable under this Act,

he may authorise in writing any other officer of central tax to inspect any places of business of the taxable person or the persons engaged in the business of transporting goods or the owner or the operator of warehouse or godown or any other place.

(2) Where the proper officer, not below the rank of Joint Commissioner, either pursuant to an inspection carried out under sub-section (1) or otherwise, has reasons to believe that any goods liable to confiscation or any documents or books or things, which in his opinion shall be useful for or relevant to any proceedings under this Act, are secreted in any place, he may authorise in writing any other officer of central tax to search and seize or may himself search and seize such goods, documents or books or things :

Provided that where it is not practicable to seize any such goods, the proper officer, or any officer authorized by him, may serve on the owner or the custodian of the goods an order that he shall not remove, part with, or otherwise deal with the goods except with the previous permission of such officer :

Provided further that the documents or books or things so seized shall be retained by such officer only for so long as may be necessary for their examination and for any inquiry or proceedings under this Act.

(3) The documents, books or things referred to in sub-section (2) or any other documents, books or things produced by a taxable person or any other person, which have not been relied upon for the issue of notice under this Act or the rules made thereunder, shall be returned to such person within a period not exceeding thirty days of the issue of the said notice.

(4) The officer authorised under sub-section (2) shall have the power to seal or break open the door of any premises or to break open any almirah, electronic devices, box, receptacle in which any goods, accounts, registers or documents of the person are suspected to be concealed, where access to such premises, almirah, electronic devices, box or receptacle is denied.

(5) The person from whose custody any documents are seized under sub-section (2) shall be entitled to make copies thereof or take extracts therefrom in the presence of an authorised officer at such place and time as such officer may indicate in this behalf except where making such copies or taking such extracts may, in the opinion of the proper officer, prejudicially affect the investigation.

(6) The goods so seized under sub-section (2) shall be released, on a provisional basis, upon execution of a bond and furnishing of a security, in such manner and of such quantum, respectively, as may be prescribed or on payment of applicable tax, interest and penalty payable, as the case may be.

(7) Where any goods are seized under sub-section (2) and no notice in respect thereof is given within six months of the seizure of the goods, the goods shall be returned to the person from whose possession they were seized :

Provided that the period of six months may, on sufficient cause being shown, be extended by the proper officer for a further period not exceeding six months.

(8) The Government may, having regard to the perishable or hazardous nature of any goods, depreciation in the value of the goods with the passage of time, constraints of storage space for the goods or any other relevant considerations, by notification, specify the goods or class of goods which shall, as soon as may be after its seizure under sub-section (2), be disposed of by the proper officer in such manner as may be prescribed.

(9) Where any goods, being goods specified under sub-section (8), have been seized by a proper officer, or any officer authorised by him under sub-section (2), he shall prepare an inventory of such goods in such manner as may be prescribed.

(10) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), relating to search and seizure, shall, so far as may be, apply to search and seizure under this section subject to the modification that sub-section (5) of section 165 of the said Code shall have effect as if for the word “Magistrate”, wherever it occurs, the word “Commissioner” were substituted.

(11) Where the proper officer has reasons to believe that any person has evaded or is attempting to evade the payment of any tax, he may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, seize the accounts, registers or documents of such person produced before him and shall grant a receipt for the same, and shall retain the same for so long as may be necessary in connection with any proceedings under this Act or the rules made thereunder for prosecution.

(12) The Commissioner or an officer authorised by him may cause purchase of any goods or services or both by any person authorised by him from the business premises of any taxable person, to check the issue of tax invoices or bills of supply by such taxable person, and on return of goods so purchased by such officer, such taxable person or any person in charge of the business premises shall refund the amount so paid towards the goods after cancelling any tax invoice or bill of supply issued earlier.

The relevant rules for release of seized goods are rules 140 and 141 and the same read thus:-

“Rule 140 - Bond and security for release of seized goods

(1) The seized goods may be released on a provisional basis upon execution of a bond for the value of the goods in FORM GST INS-04 and furnishing of a security in the form of a bank guarantee equivalent to the amount of applicable tax, interest and penalty payable.

Explanation.- For the purposes of the rules under the provisions of this Chapter, the “applicable tax” shall include central tax and State tax or central tax and the Union territory tax, as the case may be and the cess, if any, payable under the Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 (15 of 2017).

(2) In case the person to whom the goods were released provisionally fails to produce the goods at the appointed date and place indicated by the proper officer, the security shall be encashed and adjusted against the tax, interest and penalty and fine, if any, payable in respect of such goods.

Rule 141 - Procedure in respect of seized goods

(1) Where the goods or things seized are of perishable or hazardous nature, and if the taxable person pays an amount equivalent to the market price of such goods or things or the amount of tax, interest and penalty that is or may become payable by the taxable person, whichever is lower, such goods or, as the case may be, things shall be released forthwith, by an order in FORM GST INS-05, on proof of payment.

(2) Where the taxable person fails to pay the amount referred to in sub-rule (1) in respect of the said goods or things, the Commissioner may dispose of such goods or things and the amount realized thereby shall be adjusted against the tax, interest, penalty, or any other amount payable in respect of such goods or things.

Considering the highlighted portion of the provisions of law and the related rules as stated above it was stated by the Apex Court that there is no reason why any other indulgence need be shown to the assesses, who happened to be the owners of the seized goods. They must take recourse to the mechanism already provided in the act and the rules for release, on a provisional basis, upon execution of a bond and furnishing of a security, in such manner and of such quantum (even up to the total value of goods involved ), respectively, as may be prescribed or on payment of applicable taxes, interest and penalty payable, as the case my be, as predicated in section 67(6) of the Act. The High Court had erroneously extricated the assessees concerned from paying the applicable tax amount in cash, which in contrary to the said provision.

It was further held by the Supreme Court held that all suchorders passed by the High Court were contrary to the stated provisions and should not be given effect to by the authorities. Instead, the authorities should process the claims of the concerned assessee afresh as per the express stipulations in section 67 of the Act read with the relevant rules in that regard.

(Reference borrowed from THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS. VERSUS M/S KAY PAN FRAGRANCE PVT. LTD. 2019 (12) TMI 95 - SUPREME COURT)