Mansi Overseas Vs Principal Commissioner of Goods And Service Tax East Delhi & Anr. (Delhi High Court)
In a notable ruling, the Delhi High Court on July 23, 2025, set aside an order by the Principal Commissioner of Goods and Service Tax, East Delhi, that provisionally attached the bank account of Mansi Overseas. The court’s decision, in the case of Mansi Overseas Vs Principal Commissioner of Goods And Service Tax East Delhi & Anr., underscored the stringent conditions required for invoking Section 83 of the Central Goods & Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017, which permits provisional attachment of property to protect government revenue.
The present case originated from a provisional attachment order dated December 26, 2024, freezing Mansi Overseas’ bank account. This was not the first time the company’s account had been frozen; an earlier debit freeze order from May 12, 2020, had been quashed by the Delhi High Court on October 28, 2024, in a previous writ petition (W.P.(C) 13720/2024). In that instance, the court had noted that a provisional attachment could not continue beyond 12 months, and no fresh order under Section 83 had been issued to justify its continuance.
Following the quashing of the initial order, the authorities issued a fresh provisional attachment order on December 26, 2024, which became the subject of the current challenge. Upon reviewing the records, the Delhi High Court observed that the sole justification provided by the respondents for the fresh freeze was that the original Show Cause Notice (SCN) had culminated in an Order-in-Original on December 20, 2024, imposing penalties exceeding Rs. 1 crore on the taxable persons (TPs). The authorities also alleged non-cooperation from the petitioners throughout the adjudication process, citing “material change of circumstances leading to confirmed demand and continuous non-corporation of TP’s in a fraud case.”
