How the Supreme Court limited the power of arrest under GST, Customs Acts
The Supreme Court last month curtailed the powers of officers making arrests under the Customs Act, 1962, and the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
The court in Radhika Agarwal v Union of India ruled that the powers exercised by custom officers under these acts are “analogous” to the powers of arrest, search and seizure exercised by police, that is, they are subject to the same restrictions and procedural standards that apply to police under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Among other things, these procedural standards include the right of an arrestee to be presented before a magistrate within 24 hours of her arrest, the obligation of an official to inform a friend or family member of the arrestee, and the right of an arrestee to have an advocate present in the vicinity during an interrogation.
The recent ruling comes as a part of the SC’s ongoing effort to limit the broad powers of prosecuting agencies under stringent laws such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The apex court last year in Arvind Kejriwal v Directorate of Enforcement laid down requirements for ED to legally arrest someone under the PMLA. In Radhika Agarwal, the court effectively transplanted these requirements to arrests being made under the Customs and CGST Acts.
