2018 (1) TMI 1149 - HC - GST

Detention of goods - inter-state sale - goods not accompanied by valid documents as prescribed under the State Goods and Service Tax Rules (for first three consignments) - absence of invoice evidencing the sale (for fourth consignment) - Held that - it is not in dispute that there is no document prescribed under the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act and Rules for the purposes of covering an interstate movement in respect of consignments which have to suffer tax under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act, the detention on the part of the respondents cannot be held to be valid and justified. In respect of the 4th consignment, the detention is justified inasmuch as what is shown in Ext.P3 delivery chalan is that the transaction is an interstate sale, whereas the document accompanying is only a chalan and not the invoice which is a prescribed document to evidence a sale. The 1st respondent directed to release the three consignments, to the petitioner, on the petitioner producing a copy of this judgment before the said respondent - As regards the third consignmen, the respondents are directed to complete the adjudication proceedings in respect of the detention of the said consignment within a period of one week - petition disposed off.

Summary

Issues: Detention of consignments under State Goods and Service Tax (SGST) Rules, validity of documents for interstate movement, justification of detention based on prescribed documents

In this judgment by the Kerala High Court, the petitioner challenged the detention notices (Exts.P4 and P6) issued for a consignment of goods being transported. The notices stated that three out of four consignments were detained because they lacked valid documents required under the State Goods and Service Tax (SGST) Rules for interstate sales. The fourth consignment, covered by Ext.P3 delivery chalan, was objected to for not having an invoice accompanying the goods despite indicating an interstate sale. The court heard arguments from both parties and found that the detention of the first three consignments, which had valid invoices, was unjustified. The court noted that there are no prescribed documents under the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act for covering interstate movements subject to tax under the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act. However, the detention of the fourth consignment was deemed justified as the accompanying document did not meet the requirement of an invoice to evidence the sale. The court directed the release of the first three consignments upon the petitioner presenting a copy of the judgment to the respondent. For the fourth consignment, the respondents were instructed to complete adjudication proceedings within a week after receiving the judgment.