The Hon’ble Gauhati High Court in Mayank Bansal v. Union of India & Ors. [WP(C) No. 24 of 2026 dated June 08, 2026] upheld the imposition of personal penalty on partners of a partnership firm under Section 122(1A) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“the CGST Act”) for the tax evaded by the firm and held that the term “any person” in Section 122(1A) is not confined to a “taxable person” as defined under Section 2(107) and would cover partners/ officers who retain the benefit of the fraudulent transactions and at whose instance such transactions are conducted. The Court further held that Section 122(1A), although inserted with effect from January 01, 2021, can be invoked for transactions pertaining to the period prior to its insertion, since the said sub-section does not create any new offence but only identifies the natural person liable for the underlying violations enumerated in clauses (i), (ii), (vii) and (ix) of Section 122(1) of the CGST Act, which already existed since the inception of the CGST Act.
