There is no rule of refusing bail in socio-economic offences: Delhi HC
Last Updated on June 7, 2021 by Administrator
In a recent case heard before the Delhi court by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dr Pankaj Sharma. The accused is a businessman named Vikas Goyal, and his charge is wrongful availment & passing of Input Tax Credit (ITC) on purchase & sale of goods by allegedly issuing fake invoices without the actual delivery of goods.
The legal representatives of the businessman, Lawyer R K Wadhwa, Adv Tariq Ahmed & Vinay Vats submitted to the court that “the accused has been falsely implicated & have clean antecedents & pursuant to his arrest, he has not been interrogated in judicial custody which is making it clear that he is no more required for custodial interrogation”.
They further argued before the Court that under the GST laws vicarious liability cannot be undertaken as the tax of one taxable person cannot be recovered from another taxable person.
To these arguments, the court replied saying “Even assuming that the accused is prima facie guilty of a grave offence, the bail cannot be refused in an indirect process of punishing the accused person before he is convicted.”
“Furthermore, there is no justification for classifying offences into different categories such as economic offences & for refusing bail on the ground that the offence involved belonging to a particular category. It cannot, therefore, be said that the bail should invariably be refused in cases involving socio-economic offences.” reasoned the Court.
On these lines of arguments, the court granted bail to the businessman Vikas Goyal, arrested due to his charges.
