Anjita Dokania Vs State Tax Officer (GST) (Calcutta High Court)
The writ petition challenged an order dated July 5, 2024 passed under Section 74 of the WBGST Act, 2017/CGST Act, 2017, along with search operations conducted under Section 67 of the said Acts by the GST authorities. The petitioner contended that following a search operation, the electronic credit ledger was blocked on November 9, 2023 under Rule 86A of the GST Rules, 2017. It was argued that such blocking could not continue beyond one year as mandated under Rule 86A(3), yet the restriction continued beyond the statutory period.
The petitioner relied on decisions of the Delhi High Court and the Punjab & Haryana High Court to support the contention that continuation of blocking beyond one year was impermissible. It was also submitted that reasons were not disclosed for the continued blocking beyond the scope of Rule 86A. Further, the petitioner challenged the legality of the search operations, stating that two searches were conducted and, in respect of the second search, no “reasons to believe” were communicated, rendering the search without legal foundation. An additional objection was raised that the adjudicating authority, being an officer of the Bureau of Investigation, lacked jurisdiction to pass an order under Section 74.
