The Delhi High Court has recently allowed the petitioner to operate bank accounts provisionally attached by Goods and Services Tax (GST) Authorities as a year had passed since the provisional attachment.
The petitioner assailed the said impugned order on several grounds, including that the order was passed without any reason to believe that such an order is necessary for protecting the interest of the Revenue.
In addition, Manish, counsel appearing for the petitioner, also pointed out that the said impugned order not only sought to attach the bank accounts of the petitioner but also its immediate family members and other related entities and submitted that no such powers are available under Section 83 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act).
Singla, counsel for the respondents submitted that a period of one year has expired since the date of the impugned order and in terms of Sub-section (2) of Section 83 of the CGST Act, the provisional attachment order had ceased to be operative.
The Division Bench of Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan stated that, “we do not consider it apposite to pass any further orders except to direct that the petitioner would not be impeded to operate the bank accounts, on account of the impugned order.”
It was further noted that, “The petitioner has also filed a list of fifteen bank accounts including the bank accounts maintained with IndusInd Bank which were attached by separate orders passed on 20.04.2022. Mr. Singla fairly states that although the said bank accounts as set out in the Annexure P-62 of the petition, have been provisionally attached by the separate orders, the said orders have also ceased to be operative by efflux of time, by virtue of Section 83(2) of the CGST Act.”
It was thus directed that, “the concerned banks shall not obstruct operation of the bank accounts
on account of the provisional attachment orders dated 20.04.2022.”
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