Why the taxman will now pause before making customs or GST arrests

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the powers of arrest under the Customs Act, 1962, and the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017, unfolds as both a procedural recalibration and a stark reckoning for the Indian tax enforcement apparatus. In a judgment that slices through the bureaucratic muscle memory of unchecked authority, the Court has woven a new set of constraints, binding the ha…