The Supreme Court has termed the arrest under the GST Act and Customs Act without proper reason. In an important decision, the Supreme Court has said that these laws do not allow citizens to threat. An anticipatory bail application against arrest under the GST Act can be maintained. That is, the Supreme Court has also said that if someone is afraid of his arrest, he can file an anticipatory bail petition. There is no need to wait until the FIR is registered for this. With this, the Supreme Court overturned its previous decision.
The rights given in the case of arrest are also equal in GST and customs.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice Bella Trivedi and Justice MM Sundale has settled more than 200 petitions in this judgment to declare arrest invalid under the GST and Customs Act. In these petitions, the issue of misuse of arrest provisions under the GST Act and Customs Act was raised. A bench of three judges has said that the rights given to people in cases of arrest in CRPC and BNSS also apply in GST and customs cases.
Sections of GST and Customs Act equivalent to the sections of PMLA
In this decision, the Supreme Court has also cited the order given in the Arvind Kejriwal case regarding the PMLA Act. Explaining Section 19 (1) of the PMLA in that decision, it was said that before arresting it should be kept in mind why arrest is necessary. The court has now considered Section 104 of the Customs Act and Section 132 of the GST Act as equivalent to the PMLA Section 19 (1), which means that arrest cannot be made without proper reason.
GST or customs officers cannot behave like police officers.
The court has clarified that GST or Customs officers are not police officers. They cannot exercise rights like police officers. The court has also said that during the search and seizure campaign, GST or Customs Officers cannot threaten anyone to make a statement against them. If someone is pressurized in this way, he can knock on the door of the court.
