[Kerala GST Act] 'Officials Can Invoke Power To Arrest U/S 69 If Offence Made Out U/S 132': HC Denies Bail To Man In ₹6.4 Crore Tax Evasion Case

The Kerala High Court made it clear the officials can invoke the power to arrest under Section 69 of the Kerala State Goods and Services Act, 2017 if there was a reasonable belief that an offence under Section 132 was made out and that custodial interrogation was necessary. Thus, the reference to Section 132 in Section 69 is only to indicate the nature of the offences based on which reasonable belief is found and recorded by the Commissioner to pass an order for arrest…… But, once the ingredients of the offence are made out, the Commissioner or the competent authority can determine if the offender is to be arrested or not.”, Rejecting the bail to the accused, Justice Nias held that there was an allegation of tax evasion of more than 6.5 crores and a thorough investigation was needed. The Court rejected the argument that arrest can be made only after assessment and not before that since the list of offences under Section 132 has no co-relation with assessment. “The contra view taken by the Madras High Court in Jayachandran Alloys's case and also followed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Jagdish Arora's case cannot be treated as good law.”, the Court stated while noting that power to arrest can be invoked on fulfilling other condition precedents set out in Section 132.