Penalty not leviable for bonafide expiry of e-way bill : Madhya Pradesh HC

Penalty not leviable for bonafide expiry of e-way bill: Madhya Pradesh HC

In the case of M/s DayaShanker SinghVs State of Madhya Pradesh, The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has held that the delay of a few hours of expiry of tenure of E- way bill was not to evade tax.

The petitioner placed an order to supply TMT bars to Mittal Steels. Accordingly, Mittal Steels generated an E-way bill for the movement of goods from Raipur to Dindori on 17.05.2022 at 6.08 PM. The vehicle which was carrying TMT bars on 18.05.2022 and was traveling from Raipur to Dindori suffered a problem and got damaged. On 19.05.2022, the vehicle got repaired.

The vehicle reached Dindori on 19.5.2022 between 10.30 to 10.45 pm well within the time mentioned in the E-Way Bill. After reaching the destination, i.e. Dindori, the truck driver called the petitioner and informed them that the truck has reached the destination. The petitioner told the truck driver to take the vehicle to Weigh Bridge. While the vehicle was moving toward Weigh Bridge,
The Assistant Commissioner at 4.35 AM on 20.5.2022 stopped the vehicle and demanded the relevant documents and was satisfied with all the documents produced by the truck driver except the Eway Bill.

The Assistant Commissioner opined that E-way Bill got expired on 19.5.2022 at midnight. The repeated requests of the truck driver and transporter to the Assistant Commissioner that the goods reached Dindori before midnight and unintentional delay occurred thereafter went in vain. The Assistant Commissioner issued FORM GST MOV-02 stating that the E-way Bill got expired and detained the vehicle in the custody of the City Police Station, Dindori.

The High Court held that the respondent failed to follow the principles of natural justice, which was part of the statutory requirement of Section 126 of the said Act which provides that no penalty should be imposed for ‘minor breaches’ or procedural requirements or omission etc. The petitioner was not found guilty of any fraudulent intent or gross negligence.

The respondents failed to see that there was no revenue loss. The delay of almost 4:30 hours before the E-way Bill expired appears to be bonafide. Without establishing fraudulent intent and negligence on the part of the petitioner, the impugned notice/order could not have been passed.

Resultantly, the penalty imposed by the order dated 25.05.2022 is set aside. While allowing the writ petition the amount of penalty already deposited by the petitioner was ordered to be refunded back to him within 30 days failing which it will carry 6% interest till the time of actual payment.