Central Information Commission
Ashutosh Gautam vs Central Board Of Indirect Taxes And ... on 16 February, 2026
के ीय सू चना आयोग
Central Information Commission
बाबा गंगनाथ माग, मुिनरका
Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka
नई िद ी, New Delhi - 110067
File No: CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013
Ashutosh Gautam .....अपीलकता/Appellant
VERSUS
बनाम
CPIO,
Office of the Principal
Commissioner, Central GST,
GST Bhavan, Race course Ring
Road, Rajkot - 360001 .... ितवादीगण /Respondent
Date of Hearing : 28.01.2026
Date of Decision : 16.02.2026
INFORMATION COMMISSIONER : Vinod Kumar Tiwari
Relevant facts emerging from appeal:
RTI application filed on : 02.10.2023
CPIO replied on : 07.11.2023
First appeal filed on : 12.11.2023
First Appellate Authority's order : 12.12.2023
2nd Appeal/Complaint dated : 06.03.2024
Information sought:
1. The Appellant filed an (offline) RTI application dated 02.10.2023 seeking the following information:
"Information in r/o Revenue Augmentation & Plugging Leakages under the RTI Act, 2005: reg.
Kind reference is invited to the subject above.CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 1 of 8
In this regard, it is to intimate that as per articles featured in leading dailies of Gujarat, several cases of huge revenue implications have recently been booked by the officers of Anti-Evasion/Preventive, Central GST, Rajkot. Details of some of them are as follows:
Sr. Name of the GST Evasion Date of Arrest Number of
No. Assessee (M/s.) Detected (in Arrests
Crores)
1. Lexus Granito 14.66 12.07.2023 03
(India) Ltd., Morbi
24AACCV7197E1Z5
2. Kamnath 39.30 19.07.2023 01
Enterprise, Rajkot
24AAQFK7166D1Z5
3. Patel Mobile, 34.44 21.09.2023 01
Jamnagar
24AWPPK8875J1ZP
3. A mere perusal of the above chart gives an impressive look of the preventive actions taken by Central GST, Rajkot, however as per credible sources, these actions are camouflage to divert attention from the real picture of pressure tactics leading to wrongful gains which are being shared up to the top brass. In most of the cases, the arrested persons have been enlarged on bail by the lower judicial forum, however no Appeal/Revision Applications have mala fidely been moved to higher judicial forums to secure Government Revenue. Albeit, tall claims of 'unwavering commitment in combating tax evasion with stringent actions being taken against defaulters' are being made and mala fidely spread through interested individuals in print media to project fearful image amongst manufactures/dealers. Due to inaction on the part of the authorities concerned, revenue augmentation is adversely rather badly affected, and no post-arrest recoveries are made.CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 2 of 8
4. Instruction No. 02/2022-23 [GST - Investigation] dated 17th August, 2022 reads as follows:
"5.3 After arrest of the accused, efforts should be made to file prosecution complaint under Section 132 of the Act, before the competent court at the earliest, preferably within sixty days of arrest, where no bail is granted. In all other cases of arrest also, prosecution complaint should be filed within a definite time frame."
It is learnt that no prosecution complaints have been filed in arrest cases of huge revenue implications leading to jeopardizing the interest of Revenue. In one of the above-mentioned cases, an accused has allegedly been facilitated to fly abroad against the bail conditions under some tacit agreement of palm greasing.
Review Meetings at different levels of administration are regularly being held for revenue augmentation, but either such issues are not being discussed & deliberated or compliance is not being made by field formations. Public money is being looted & plundered under the garb of business and trade, and the law enforcement authorities concerned are not taking proper follow-up actions for logical conclusion cases. Actions taken by the authorities concerned remain cosmetic in nature without significant systematic improvements in tax culture.
5. Now, in view of the above, please provide the information pertaining to Central GST, Rajkot in soft copy on mail or hard copy as available in records/files:
(i) Please provide the number of cases where arrests have been made during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(ii) Please provide the number of cases falling under (i) above where prosecution complaints have been filed before the Hon'ble Courts of Law during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(iii) Please provide the case wise recoveries made after arrest in cases during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 3 of 8
(iv) Please provide the Agenda of the Review Meetings regarding revenue augmentation held at Central GST, Rajkot headed by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(v) Please provide the Agenda of the Review Meetings regarding revenue augmentation held at Ahmedabad Zone headed by the Principal Chief Commissioner/Chief Commissioner during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(vi) Please provide the number of cases falling under (i) above where bail has been granted to the accused by the Hon'ble Courts of Law during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(vii) Please provide the number of cases falling under (vi) above where Appeal/Revision Applications have been moved before higher judicial forums for cancellation of bail during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(viii) Please provide the number of cases falling under (i) above where the Case File has been perused by the Principal Commissioner/Commissioner (who is competent to sanction prosecution) during 01.07.2017 to 30.09.2023.
(ix) Please provide the name of the nominated officer of Central GST, Rajkot who is to be nominated in terms of Para 5.4 of the Instruction No. 02/2022-23 [GST-Investigation] dated 17th August, 2022.
(x) Please provide the details of action taken against the officers failed in their duty to keep watch over the accused who has flown abroad against the bail conditions."
2. The CPIO furnished a reply to the Appellant on 07.11.2023 stating as under:
"With reference to Point 5 of (i), (ii), (iii), (vi), (vii) and (viii), it is to state that since the investigation are undergoing therefore in view of provisions of Section 8(1)(h) of The RTI Act, 2005 the required information cannot be given.
With reference to Point 5 of (iv) & (v) Following are the common agenda points for Review Meetings regarding revenue augmentation held at the level of Pr. Commissioner/Commissioner, Central GST, Rajkot and at the CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 4 of 8 level of Pr. Chief Commissioner/ Chief Commissioner, CGST Ahemdabad Zone:-
Revenue Performance & Revenue Augmentation DGARM - Detection & Recovery BIFA(GAIN) - Detection & Recovery E-Way Bill Analytics - Detection & Recovery Mandatory E- Invoice - Who are yet to enrol - Action Taken GST Return Scrutiny - Detection & Recovery GST Anti-Evasion - Detection & Recovery Alerts / Intels issued by AZDAC - Nos., Detection & Recovery With reference to Point 5(ix) it is to submit that information sought for the name of officer contains personal information and the disclosure has no relationship to any public activity or intereset and it would cause unwarranted invasion in the privacy of individual, Therefore, the same cannot be provided as per Section8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, 2005. With reference to Point 5(x) it is to submit that information sought may be treated as NIL."
3. Being dissatisfied, the Appellant filed a First Appeal dated 12.11.2023. The FAA vide its order dated 12.12.2023, upheld the reply of CPIO.
4. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied, Appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal.
Relevant Facts emerged during Hearing:
The following were present:-CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 5 of 8
Appellant: Absent Respondent: Shri Niranjan Singh, Assistant Commissioner, appeared through video conference.
5. Proof of having served a copy of Second Appeal on Respondent while filing the same in CIC on 06.03.2024 is not available on record. The Respondent confirmed non-service.
6. The Respondent while defending their case inter alia submitted that the investigations in the concerned cases are still in progress and disclosure of case-wise details may impede the process of investigation and prosecution. Therefore, exemption under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act was claimed. It was further submitted that the information sought relates to sensitive enforcement matters handled by the Anti-Evasion wing.
Decision:
7. The Commission after adverting to the facts and circumstances of the case, hearing the Respondent and perusal of the records, notes that Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act permits withholding of such information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders. However, the exemption cannot be applied in a blanket and mechanical manner to deny all information irrespective of its nature and content.
8. The Commission observes that the Appellant has largely sought statistical and numerical information such as the number of cases where arrests were made, number of cases where prosecution complaints were filed, number of cases where bail was granted and number of cases where appeals/revisions were filed. Such aggregated and non-identifiable numerical data, if provided without disclosing case-wise or sensitive particulars, would not ordinarily impede the process of investigation or prosecution. Even an overall figure of quantum of recoveries made for a specific period cannot impede investigation or prosecution. A blanket denial will certainly lead to a suspicion of collusion with the offenders/tax evaders whereas its disclosure will expose any collusion that may have happened.
CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 6 of 89. The Respondent has not demonstrated as to how disclosure of broad, non-identifiable statistical information in numbers alone would hamper ongoing investigations. A mere assertion that investigation is pending is not sufficient to attract exemption under Section 8(1)(h) unless a clear nexus between disclosure and likely impediment is established.
10. The Commission, therefore, holds that blanket denial of all information under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act is not appreciated and is contrary to the spirit of transparency envisaged under the Act. The Respondent ought to have examined each query independently and provided such portion of information which is severable and non-sensitive in nature.
11. In view of the above, the Respondent is directed to revisit the RTI application and provide non-identifiable, aggregated information in numerical form with respect to points (i), (ii), (iii), (vi), (vii) and (viii), to the extent available on record and which does not reveal any case-specific or sensitive investigative details. Any information which squarely attracts exemption under Section 8(1)(h) may be withheld; however, the same shall be justified with cogent reasons indicating how disclosure would impede the investigation.
12. The above exercise shall be completed within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of this order and a revised reply shall be furnished to the Appellant accordingly.
13. The FAA to ensure compliance of this order.
The appeal is disposed of accordingly.
Sd/-
Vinod Kumar Tiwari (िवनोद कुमार ितवारी) Information Commissioner (सूचना आयु ) Authenticated true copy (अिभ मािणत स ािपत ित) Sd/-
(S. Anantharaman) Dy. Registrar 011- 26181927 Date CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 7 of 8 Copy To:
The FAA, Office of the Principal Commissioner, Central GST, GST Bhavan, Racecourse Ring Road, Rajkot - 360001 CIC/CBECE/A/2024/610013 Page 8 of 8 Recomendation(s) to PA under section 25(5) of the RTI Act, 2005:-
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