Supreme Court Grants Conditional Bail to Widow Allegedly Involved In GST Evasion Case

Supreme Court Grants Conditional Bail to Widow Allegedly Involved In GST Evasion Case

The Supreme Court (SC) in the case titled Chhaya Devi (Petitioner) v. Union of India & Anr. (Respondent) granted the conditional bail to the widow allegedly involved in the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Evasion Case.

The SC bench comprising of Justices Uday Umesh Lalit, Indira Banerjee, and K.M Joseph allowed the bail to the petitioner subject to the following conditions-

- The petitioner shall deposit a sum of Rs. 1 crore with the concerned authorities on or before 10 May 2021 and shall file appropriate proof in the Registry of this Court.

- The Undertaking shall be filed within five days.

The Court further directed that the petitioner shall be released on ad interim bail subject to the satisfaction of the Trial Court and to facilitate the cause the petitioner shall be produced before the Trial Court within three days from today.

The factual background of the case is that the petitioner is a widow with five daughters and that the business was being looked after by the Manager who was the in-charge of the business.

The Senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that his client shall file an undertaking within five days to the effect that she shall not create any encumbrance with respect to the properties of the business as well as her personal properties till further orders and that his client will deposit the amount representing the admitted duty element.

The Allahabad High Court (HC) had rejected the bail application by stating that as the evasion of the duty is more than Rs. 5 crore, therefore, the offense alleged against the applicant is cognizable and non-bailable.

The HC held that the offense alleged against the applicant is an economic offense in which the evasion of duty is made against the applicant. The Court further noted that although the offense is punishable with imprisonment of five years yet the evasion of huge amounts of duty is a great loss to the Government Exchequer.

An appeal was filed against the said order of the HC before the Apex Court and it granted bail to the petitioner based on aforesaid conditions.