In an important direction, a bench of the Gujarat High Court has ordered Commissioner of State Tax, Ahmedabad, to conduct inquiry against GST officials for illegally camping at house of a taxable person without authority of law. The court has asked to submit a report before the court on or before November 13. The court was hearing a petition filed by Paresh Chauhan claiming GST officials forcefully camped inside his house from October 11 to 18. The GST officers had stationed in the flat round the clock and his family members were not allowed to go out of the house, he had claimed.
“The HC has taken a strict view and entrusted inquiry in the issue. The matter will be heard on November 13,” said Chetan Pandya, counsel for Chauhan. “The exercise carried out by the concerned officers from Oct 12 to Oct 18 was without any authority of law and in flagrant disregard of the provisions of the Act and the rules and in total abuse of the powers. The manner in which the officers have conducted themselves by overreaching the process of law needs to be deprecated in the strictest terms,” the court observed.