Supreme Court Halts Delhi High Court Order to Search Lawyer’s Office in GST Probe

On Monday, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court put on hold the Delhi High Court’s directive that permitted the Goods and Services Tax authorities to conduct a search of advocate Puneet Batra’s office and to clone data from his seized computer. The petition, filed by Batra, argued that the raid violated attorney-client privilege, and the justices—Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu—asked how the investigators could identify and separate privileged material during the search.

GST officials, led by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, maintained they could segregate confidential information and need not disclose their reasons at this stage. The court limited its interim order to the legality of the search, staying the cloning and examination of the data, but did not block the department’s coercive actions, allowing Batra to respond to a summons and appear before the officer. The case stems from a raid by the Anti-Evasion Branch of the Central GST Department targeting Martkarma Technology Private Limited, with authorities alleging Batra’s involvement went beyond legal counsel to business operations. The Supreme Court has asked the Union government and GST officials to submit their responses.