Dear Learned Professionals,
As, the Hon’ble Jharkhand High Court in the case of Directorate General of GST Intelligence v. Pankaj Agarwal gave the ruling that an individual avoiding appearance before the authority would not get immunity from coercive action by the authority, including arrest.
The Court formed an opinion on a conjoint reading of Sections 69 and 70 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 that the Senior Intelligence Officer is not authorized to arrest an individual to whom he had issued a summon on the first date of his appearance. It was certainly not the import of Section 69 read with Section 70 that an individual avoiding appearance before the authority without any just excuse can claim that even if he appears after a dozen summons, the authority cannot take coercive action against him, including his arrest.
