Case Law Details
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 the same, the Show Cause Notices were issued to the petitioner.
The main grievance of the petitioner was that the digital data evidences were collected by the respondents from unknown locations without any valid search warrant and without following the guidelines issued by the CBDT vide Digital Evidence Investigation Manual. Further, without providing any opportunity of personal hearing to the petitioner and without any corroborative evidence to corroborate the digital data evidences as mandated in the Digital Evidence Investigation Manual, four non-speaking assessment orders were passed by the respondents.
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