Parliament empowered to enact special laws on GST: HC

The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act was authorized, the Punjab and Haryana High Court implied prime facie concern that Parliament was certified under the Constitution to appear with special laws on the issue. In this article, we will discuss Parliament empowered to enact special laws.

Parliament empowered to enact special laws

Four years after the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act was enacted, the Punjab and Haryana High Court affirmed prime facie view that Parliament was empowered under the Constitution to appear with special laws on the issue.

The statement came as the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh dismissed an interim protection request filed by Narinder Chugh against the Union of India and other respondents in an apparent GST evasion case. Among other things, the Bench was told that cumulative amount of GST evasion in the case was of Rs 7,83,15,309.

Also, the Bench affirmed it was of the prima facie view that the special enactment has been authorized for the recovery of taxes, under facilitating provisions contained in Section 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The court was also of prima facie perspective that Parliament was empowered under Article 246A of the Constitution to enact special laws with regard to Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Further Notification by CGST

The legislation authorized is for levy and collection of taxes on the supply of goods and services having special provisions for recovery of revenue. It being a fiscal matter, a different procedure appears to have been evolved by Parliament by virtue of a special enactment, which is permissible under Section 4 of the CrPC.

Further, the matter wasseated before the Bench after the petitioner challenged the vires of Sections 69 and 132 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.

Especially the powers of the legislature to authorize laws under Article 246A. Officials also referred to the provisions of the CrPC to contend that an offence under the CGST would be investigated, examined into, tried and otherwise dealt with according to requirements of the code, subject to any provision contrary in the CGST Act.

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