The Kerala High Court recently permitted the assessee, M/s Vajra Rubber Products (P) Ltd to release goods detained by the State GST department by furnishing a bond. While disposing of the writ petition, Justice P B Suresh Kumar also directed the authorities to complete adjudication within seven days in terms of section 129 of the Act.
Earlier, the goods were seized by the GST authorities by finding that there was no nexus between the documents accompanied and the actual goods under transport.
Aggrieved by the action of the authorities, the assessee filed a writ petition before the High Court by invoking Article 226 of the Constitution.
The Court noted that, in Madhu M.B v. CTO, a two-judge bench of the Court, while dealing with a similar issue, directed expeditious completion of the adjudication of the matter and permitting release of the goods detained pending adjudication, in terms of Rule 140(1) of the Kerala Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017.
In that case, the division bench comprising Justices Antony Dominic and Dama Seshadri Naidu also observed that the provisions of the Kerala GST Act provide a mechanism for adjudication following the detention of goods including for the provisional release thereof pending adjudication. “When the statute itself provides for such a mechanism, a deviation therefrom cannot be ordered. If that be so, the provisional release in the manner as is ordered in the judgment under appeal cannot be sustained,” the bench observed.
In the light of the decision of the Division Bench in the above case, the bench directed the competent authority to complete the adjudication provided for under Section 129 of the statutes referred to above, within a week from the date of production of a copy of the judgment. It was also directed that if the petitioner complies with Rule 140(1) of the Kerala Goods and Services Tax Rules, 2017, the goods detained shall be released to them forthwith.
