GST provisional attachment order loses its validity after one year: HC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain has held that every provisional attachment order ceases to have effect after the expiry of a period of one year from the date the order was passed under Section 83(1) of the CGST Act, Live Law reported,

The petitioner/assessee challenged the letter issued under Section 83 of the CGST Act, 2017 by which the respondent/department had directed the bankers of the petitioner to provisionally attach immovable property in the name of the petitioner. The petitioner had prayed for the directions to release/de-freeze the immovable property. Counsel for the respondent submitted that after December 1, 2020, no fresh attachment order was issued. He further clarified that no show cause notice under Section 74 of the CGST Act has been issued to the petitioner till date. The court noted that after the issuance of the letter dated December 7, 2020, no fresh attachment order on Form GST DRC-22 was issued.

The court observed that the provisional attachment letter is no longer valid and directed the department to de-freeze the bank accounts and release the petitioner's immovable properties within three days.