The Delhi High Court has issued a stern caution to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Department: hands off advocates’ computers unless they’re present.
A bench led by Justices Prathiba M Singh and Shail Jain declared that barging into a lawyer’s digital files without consent strikes at the heart of attorney–client confidentiality. Any search, the Court stressed, must take place in the presence of the advocate.
The warning came while hearing a plea by advocate Puneet Batra, who challenged a raid on his office by the Anti-Evasion wing of the GST Department. Officials had seized his CPU and documents, claiming he was not just representing Martkarma Technology—a gaming company under probe—but also involved in its business operations.
Batra countered that the raid violated the sanctity of privileged legal material, insisting there was no justification to seize documents without proof of his personal involvement beyond professional representation.
Balancing the standoff, the Court allowed the CPU to be accessed under a controlled procedure. It ordered that the machine be opened in Batra’s presence, with Delhi High Court IT experts and forensic specialists from both sides supervising. A clone of the hard drive would be given to Batra, and only material linked to Martkarma could be shared with the GST authorities. The CPU itself will remain sealed under court custody.
The Court further instructed the department to file a redacted affidavit spelling out allegations and findings without compromising other client matters. It also put the brakes on any coercive action against Batra until further notice.
In essence, the ruling reaffirmed a principle long considered sacred in the legal profession: a lawyer’s files are not just papers and drives—they are vaults of trust, and cannot be pried open at will.
