Every Provisional Attachment order shall cease to have effect of period of one year from its date of order.

Case Details:

Issue- In the above case, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 14th July, 2020 issued under Form GST DRC-22 provisionally attaching the Petitioner’s current Bank Account with IndusInd Bank Ltd. under section 83 of the CGST Act, 2017 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’). Petitioner also seeks direction to the Respondents to defreeze the Petitioner’s bank account.

Held- It was held that as per the provisions of section 83(2) of the CGST Act, 2017, the order of provisional attachment of bank account ceases to have effect after the expiry of one year from the date of issuance of the order. She states that though the order of provisional attachment dated 14th July, 2020 has ceased to have effect on 13th July, 2021 yet the Petitioner is still not allowed to operate its bank account which had been provisionally attached by the impugned order. Therefore, present writ petition was allowed, and the respondents are directed to defreeze the petitioner’s bank account.