Delhi High Court allows GST Dept to further inspect advocate’s computer data in his lawyer's presence

The Delhi High Court recently allowed the GST Department to further parse (convert raw data into readable form) digital data contained in the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a computer seized from a lawyer, in the presence of the lawyer's counsel, court-appointed local commissioners and two GST officials [Puneet Batra v Union of India & Ors].The Court had earlier allowed the GST officials to access the CPU on September 11 and 12 in the presence of the lawyer, his representatives, Delhi High Court IT officials, and forensic experts from both sides. However, the GST Department submitted that it was only able to partially parse the CPU data on the two dates. It, therefore, sought the Court's permission to finish analysing the CPU. On November 13, the Court allowed the GST officials to further inspect the device. A Division Bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Shail Jain allowed further parsing of the digital data in the presence of court-appointed local commissioners, two counsel representing the advocate and two officials of the GST Department..Earlier this year, the Central Goods and Services Tax (GST) Department raided the advocate’s office as well as his residence and seized his computer CPU and other documents. The GST officials said that it was investigating a gaming company named Martkarma Technology and claimed that Batra was not only representing the firm as a lawyer but was involved in running its business. The lawyer, advocate Puneet Batra, challenged the search and seizure by the GST Department as illegal and violative of attorney-client privilege.In September, the Court passed an order warning the GST Department officials against accessing advocates’ computers in their absence. It ruled that the CPU may be examined, but only under strict conditions..The CPU was accordingly examined in the presence of the lawyer's representatives on two occasions. By its latest order, the Court has allowed the further inspection and parsing of the advocate’s digital data, subject to similar conditions.The Court added:- The parsing of the data shall be done in the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, National Forensic Sciences University, Ministry of Home Affairs Lab. - After the data is parsed, a copy of the same shall be provided to the lawyer/ petitioner, and shall be retained on a new hard drive by the court-appointed commissioners. The same shall be kept in the custody of the commissioners for the next date of hearing. - If any objections are raised relating to the relevance of data for parsing, the same shall still be parsed, but the Court shall hear the objections on the next date of hearing. This is being done to ensure that objections do not come in the way of the technical work that is to be carried out.The Court directed that the parsing process should start from November 17 (today) and continue on a daily basis for up to a maximum of six hours a day until the entire data is parsed.This entire exercise has to be completed by November 25. .The case will be heard next on December 4, when the Court said it will consider passing further directions for handing over the entire parsed data to the GST Department..Senior Advocates Avi Singh, Kirti Uppal, Mohit Mathur and Sachin Puri with advocates Kunal Malhotra, Animesh Gaba, Nalinaksha Singh, Akshat Sharma, Manish Dhankani, Ishan Parashar, Arjun Singh and N Raj Tyagi appeared for the petitioner. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju with standing counsel Aditya Singla, advocates PC Aggarwal, Amit Khatri, standing counsel Arunima Dwivedi with advocates Arya Suresh Nair, Dhananjay Gautam, Annam Venkatesh, Shaurya Sarin, Harsh Paul Singh, Aditi Andley, Aryansh Shukla standing counsel Arunima Dwivedi with advocates Amit Dutta, Himanshi and Monalisa Pradhan appeared for the respondent authorities..[Read judgment].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.