Electronic data collected in violation of Digital Evidence Investigation Manual is unsustainable

Saravana Selvarathnam Retails Private Limited Vs CIT (Madras High Court) Madras High Court held that digital data collected by the department in the course of search and seizure without following the Digital Evidence Investigation Manual issued by CBDT makes the entire search and seizure unsustainable and ab initio bad Facts- The case of the petitioner is that the respondents-Department had conducted a sudden search u/s. 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on different dates between 01.12.2021 and 27.01.2022. In the said searches, the 2nd respondent had seized the electronic data and pursuant to t...