High Court summoned GST over detention of tax consultant

The Gujarat HC on Wednesday ordered a Goods and Service Tax (GST) officer to appear in court on Thursday morning and bring a tax consultant who had reportedly been in the department’s custody for the previous five days without being shown before a judicial magistrate.

According to petitioner Sanjay Patel, GST official B D Trivedi summoned his brother Hitesh Patel, an Ahmedabad-based tax consultat involved in gumasta licence process, on Friday afternoon. He claimed that the family had not been permitted to contact Hitesh since then.

Sanjay said that he was allowed to present two sets of garments to a GST official at the GST office building’s main gate on March 20, but was not allowed to meet his brother.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s attorney stated that Hitesh was arrested on March 18, but was never brought before a magistrate. On Wednesday morning, the case was discussed in court, and the court decided to hear it in the afternoon. The petitioner received a call from an unknown individual ten minutes before the hearing alerting him that Hitesh was being brought before the magistrate.

According to two Supreme Court rulings in the D K Basu and Vimal Goswami instances, the petitioner’s attorney stated that the GST officer’s behaviour violated the guidelines given to protect the interests of a detainee in police custody. He contended that since the standards are intended for police, they apply to other agencies as well.

In summoning the GST officer, the bench of Justices Sonia Gokani and Mauna Bhatt further instructed him to demonstrate how the guidelines outlined in the SC judgments were followed in this matter.

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