PUNEET BATRA v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
High Court, Delhi
Prathiba M. Singh, Justice & Shail Jain, Justice
PUNEET BATRA
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
W.P.(C) 11021/2025 & CM APPLs. 45387/2025 & 56648/2025 dated 09.09.2025
Law : GST
Act Name : Central Goods & Service Tax Act, 2017
Relevant Section : Section 67
Decision : Interim
Search and seizure at Advocate office – Breach of attorney–client privilege – Search conducted at premises of law firm and CPU of advocate seized – Petitioner pleas concern regarding confidentiality of client data and professional privilege – Petitioner contended only acting in professional capacity as advocate and not in running client business – Reliance on sealed cover material without disclosure contrary to law and action under Section 67 of CGST Act lacked valid “reasons to believe” – Court held GST authorities cannot access or open advocate computer without his presence and consent, save in exceptional circumstances – CPU examination permitted only under presence of petitioner, his counsel/forensic expert, senior IT officials of Delhi High Court and GST forensic expert – Entire hard drive to be cloned and copy given to petitioner, only files related to client company to be supplied to GST – CPU thereafter to be re-sealed – Held: GST Department to file affidavit with redacted allegations/data before next hearing – Interim protection granted against coercive action – Matter to be listed for final consideration.
Represented By:
Counsel for the Petitioner: N Hariharan, Sachin Puri, Kirti Uppal, Avi Singh, Neeraj Malhotra & Amit Chaddha, Sr. Advs. with Kunal Malhotra, Aman Sareen, Animesh Gaba, B C Pandey, Rajiv Taneja, Punya Rekha Angara, Vasundhara N., Aman Akhtar, Sana Singh, Vasundhara Raj Tyagi, Arjan Singh Mandla, Gauri Rama Chandra, Manish Dhankani, Ishan Parashar & Animesh Gaur, Advs.
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