Law: Sales Tax Act, 1990

Section: 2(37),33(5),33(8),33(11-C),33(12),33(13) ,33(16)

Law: Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)

Section: 498

Criminal Procedure Code (V of 1898)- -S. 498-Sales Tax Act (VII of 1990), Ss. 2(37), 33(5), 33(8), 33(11-C), 33(12), 33(13) & 33(16)-Evasion of sales tax-Pre-arrest bail, grant of-Accused was director of a business concern and the allegation against him and his co-accused was that the record recovered from their business premises disclosed huge discrepancies pointing towards a wilful and deliberate evasion of the sales tax-Order-in-original passed by the competent authority fixing liability upon the accused was completely set aside by the Appellate Tribunal- Department had filed a Reference against order of Appellate Tribunal, which was pending before the High Court with no interim relief in favour of the Department-Present FIR was based upon a permission granted and a direction issued by the competent authority in Inland Revenue, which in turn was based upon the liability of the accused determined by the Department but if the said determination of the liability itself had been set aside (by the Appellate Tribunal) then the foundation of the present criminal case appeared to be shaken and in the absence of any determined or established liability of the accused insistence by the investigating agency upon arrest of the accused may smack of lack of bona fide on its part-Apart from that the allegations levelled against the accused required explanation of the record of his business concern and the accused was likely to be handicapped in his defence if he was taken into custody-Even if the accused was admitted to bail he still had to keep on joining the investigation if and when required to do so by the investigating agency and if he failed to do so then that may be considered to be a valid ground for seeking cancellation of his bail-Supreme Court clarified that if the Reference presently pending before the High Court was decided in favour of the Department and if the accused's liability was determined on the basis of the answer to the Reference even then the Department may have a basis to apply for cancellation of the petitioner's bail-Accused was admitted to pre-arrest bail accordingly. THIS ORDER PASSED BY: ASIF SAEED KHAN KHOSA, JUSTICE.------ Through this…

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