Section 132 of the CGST Act, 2017 —Bail –--The petitioners have filed bail application under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (hereinafter referred to as 'CrPC') for grant of regular bail to the petitioners of a case registered by Police under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B and 259 of Indian Penal Code. It is alleged that the tax payer was found involved in evasion of tax by way of getting registration under GST Act by means of wilful mis-statement and suppression of facts and found to be fraudulently involved in wrong availment and utilization of ITC. The counsels of the petitioners contended that the trial is a Magisterial trial and the petitioners are in custody since 07.12.2020  and since 18.12.2020. Both the petitioners do not have any other criminal case registered against them and have already undergone more than 1½ years of actual custody. The investigation is already complete and the trial has commenced and out of 17 witnesses so cited by the prosecuting agency only 02 witnesses have been examined so far. The court observed that there is no compelling circumstance as would call for continued custodial detention in a Magisterial trial when they have already undergone 1½ years of actual sentence and the trial is still at the nascent stage and is likely to take long to conclude.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court allowed the bail application subject to certain conditions.