The Supreme Court last week upheld the rights of authorised officers to make arrests under the Customs Act and the GST Acts. However, it introduced key safeguards to prevent arbitrary detention and clarified the extent and limits of enforcement under these special statutes. The bench also addressed concerns that taxpayers were being forced to make voluntary payments under threat of arrest. The top court was delivering the verdict on 281 petitions that criticised the arresting powers under the central and state GST laws and the Customs act. In the Radhika Agarwal case, the court said customs officers cannot “conclude that an offence has been committed out of thin air or mere suspicion” The arrestee must be provided with the reasons for their arrest, according to the court. The court said that if any person is feeling coerced to pay GST, they can approach the writ court for refund of the tax paid by them under coercion. It also said that the officers who indulge in such coercion must be dealt with departmentally. \”We would observe that in case there is a breach of law, and the assessees are put under threat by force or coercion, theAssessees would be entitled to move the courts and seek a refund of tax deposited by them,\” said the Supreme Court.