Ravid Multiventures Private Limited & ors. Vs Union of India & ors. (Calcutta High Court)
The Calcutta High Court has declared a provisional bank account attachment invalid, ruling that it had lost its legal force due to the expiry of the statutory one-year period. In a concise judgment in the case of Ravid Multiventures Private Limited & ors. Vs Union of India & ors., the court sided with the petitioner, reinforcing the strict time limits imposed on tax authorities by the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017. The ruling provides a clear and direct precedent for taxpayers facing indefinite financial restrictions imposed by the tax department.
The case originated from a writ petition filed by Ravid Multiventures Private Limited challenging a provisional attachment order of its bank account. The company’s account was initially frozen on an unspecified date, with a fresh provisional attachment order passed on October 29, 2020. The petitioner argued that this order had automatically ceased to be operative after one year. This argument was based on Section 83(2) of the CGST Act, which explicitly states that any such provisional attachment “shall cease to have effect after the expiry of a period of one year from the date of the order.”
