The court emphasized that disputed questions of fact and law should be adjudicated in appeal before the Appellate Authority, and the order of confiscation was open to appeal under Section 107 of the Act.

ORDER :

1. Heard Ms. Anjali Jha Manish and Mr. Anmol Arya, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. Ayush Singh & Mr. Akshay Singh, learned counsel appearing for the respondents.

2. The petitioner has preferred these writ petitions challenging the show cause notice dated 02.10.2022 and the validity of the order dated 02.11.2022 passed by the respondents under Section 130 of the Rajasthan Goods and Services Act, 2017 (for short ‘the Act’) confiscating the goods and conveyance of the petitioner in transit.

3. The petitioner alleges that it had purchased the goods i.e. Areca nuts (betel nuts) from Chilur in Karnataka and the same were being transported to Delhi. The said goods during transit were intercepted, detained and finally confiscated vide impugned order dated 02.11.2022.

4. The submission is that the aforesaid order is without jurisdiction and has been passed in violation of the principles of natural justice. The provisions of Section 129 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, which exclusively deal with the detention and seizure of the goods in transit and provides for a complete mechanism thereof, have not been followed and straightway the order of confiscation has been passed under Section 130 of the Act. In passing the above order, no finding has been returned that the petitioner had any intention of evasion of the tax, therefore, the order of confiscation is unsustainable in law.

5. Learned counsel for the respondents objects to the filing of the writ petitions on the ground that the order of confiscation is appeallable and, therefore, the writ petitions are not maintainable. Moreover the points, as urged by the petitioner, are disputed questions of fact which cannot be agitated and adjudicated in exercise of writ jurisdiction and, therefore, it is all the more necessary that the petitioner should avail the remedy of appeal. The goods and conveyance have been confiscated as the documents accompanying the goods were found to be suspicious and the whole transaction of sale and purchase appeared to be bogus as the supply was being made to a non-existent person.

6. In response to the above objections, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is the purchaser, to whom the goods were supplied. Since the proceedings were drawn and an order cancelling its registration under the GST was passed by the authorities in Delhi, the same was challenged by it by means of a writ petition before the High Court at Delhi being Writ Petition (C) No.16388/2022. The said writ petition was allowed vide judgment and order dated 29.11.2022 and the order cancelling the GST registration of the petitioner was quashed, may be with liberty to proceed afresh in accordance with law. Thus, in the above circumstances, it cannot be said by any stretch of imagination that the petitioner is non-existent and that the supplies were being made to a bogus firm.

7. The order of physical verification/inspection of the conveyance, goods and documents on record reveals that the goods and conveyance were detained as the Assistant Commissioner, State Tax Circle, Jaipur-III was of the prima facie opinion that the documents tendered were apparently defective and that the genuineness of the goods in transit, its quantity and the tendered documents required further verification. Accordingly, he requested the Special Commissioner, Trade and Tax Department, Government of Delhi to inquire with regard to the existence of the supplier at Delhi i.e. the petitioner and to submit a report. In pursuance thereof, a field visit report was submitted recording that the premises of the petitioner was visited on 27.09.2022 at around 02:00 PM and it was found that the address of the petitioner-firm is not traceable. The registered mobile number of the petitioner-firm is switched-off. Therefore, it seems that the firm is non-existing at the given address. Accordingly, a show cause notice for confiscation was given on 02.10.2022 stating that the goods in mo