Officer Appointed Under State GST Act Is Authorised To Discharge Duties As Proper Officer For IGST & CGST: Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court has held that an officer appointed under the State Goods & Service Tax Act will be Proper Officer under the Integrated Goods & Service Tax Act as well as the Central Goods & Service Tax Act. Perusing Section 4 of the IGST Act read with rule 20 of the CGST Act, Justice Piyush Agrawal held that “The provision provides that the Officer...
The Allahabad High Court has held that an officer appointed under the State Goods & Service Tax Act will be Proper Officer under the Integrated Goods & Service Tax Act as well as the Central Goods & Service Tax Act.
Perusing Section 4 of the IGST Act read with rule 20 of the CGST Act, Justice Piyush Agrawal held that
“The provision provides that the Officer appointed under the State Goods & Service Tax is authorized to discharge their duties as Proper Officer for the purpose of IGST & CGST. Further, the notification will be required only if some exceptions and conditions are required to be carved out on the recommendation of the GST Council.”
Petitioner pleaded that the good in question were intercepted Jhansi (UP) on 26.05.2025 while travelling from Delhi to Raipur. Petitioner pleaded that the goods were detained and the show cause notice was issued after a week which itself vitiated the proceedings. It was further pleaded that though the goods were accompanied by all documents, the driver failed to produce them before the authorities.
It was further argued that no notification empowered the State Authorities to seize petitioner's goods when no notification under Section 4 of the IGST Act had been issued empowering them to initiate proceedings with respect to goods moving interstate.
The Court observed that the documents were not produced before the authorities before passing of the seizure order and the grounds regarding driver's inadvertence was only taken in appeal.
It observed that Section 4 of the IGST Act provides that “Without prejudice to the provisions of this Act, the officers appointed under the State Goods and Services Tax Act or the Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Act are authorised to be the proper officers for the purposes of this Act, subject to such exceptions and conditions as the Government shall, on the recommendations of the Council, by notification, specify.”
Taking note of Circulars dated 01.07.2017 and 04.08.2020 whereby State Government had notified Officers authorized to discharge functions under Section 129 of the GST Act, it was held that State Goods and Service Tax Officers were Proper Officer under the IGST and CGST Acts.
Further, the Court held that since no documents were produced at the time of detention or seizure, the goods were rightly seized. It held that the transactions were not reflected on the GST portal of the petitioner who claimed to be the owner of the goods. Accordingly, the finding that petitioner was not the owner of the goods was upheld. Penalty under Section 129(b) of the GST Act was not interfered with by the Court.
Case Title: Shree Maa Trading Company And 2 Others v. State Of U.P. And 3 Others [WRIT TAX No. - 3171 of 2025]
Counsel for Petitioner :- Naveen Chandra Gupta
Counsel for Respondent : Anoop Trivedi, AAG, Ravi Shankar Pandey, ACSC