Puneet Batra Vs Union of India & Ors. (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court heard a petition challenging the search conducted by the GST Department at the office premises of an advocate on 25 July 2025, which resulted in the seizure of his CPU and several documents. The Petitioner, an advocate and former partner of a tax consulting firm run by his parents, claimed that he was providing professional services to a client company, including GST filings, income tax returns, intellectual property matters, and cyber-crime related work. The GST Department had earlier conducted a search at the client’s premises in September 2024, after which the Petitioner withdrew from representation when communication with the client broke down. Despite this, the Petitioner received multiple summons between September 2024 and June 2025, eventually appearing before the Anti-Evasion Branch on 27 June 2025.
The Petitioner’s grievance related to the July 2025 search at the firm’s office, where documents concerning the client and partnership papers were resumed, and the CPU from his cabin was seized. A panchnama was drawn detailing the authorization, presence of panch witnesses, the items seized, and the chronology of the search. The Petitioner alleged that the CPU contained privileged, confidential data relating to multiple clients and that the GST officers appeared to have accessed the password and opened the computer system during the search without his presence.
