[dated 02.09.2024, in Adabala Naryana Rao v. Union of India, from D.B. Civil Writ Petition no. 13552 of 2024]

The petitioner's bank account was provisionally attached under section 83 of the CGST Act, 2017 vide Form GST DRC-22.  According to rule 159(5) of the CGST Rules, 2017, any person whose property is attached may file objections in FORM GST DRC-22A to the effect that the property attached was or is not liable to attachment. The Commissioner may, after affording an opportunity of being heard, release the said property by an order in FORM GST DRC-23. However, the said sub-rule does not provide a time limit within which such objections should be decided.

In the instant case, the objections were pending for over two months. The Hon'ble court observed that the objections must be decided within a reasonable time and cannot be pending indefinitely. If the objections are pending for a long time without decision, it would frustrate the very object of consideration of objections as engrafted under rule 159(5) ibid.

In the absence of an express provision, the Hon'ble Court held that such objections must be decided within three months from the date of submission of the objections. It also held that an appropriate circular must be issued prescribing the time limit which such objections should be decided, lest the provisions under rule 159(5) ibid are rendered nugatory and an empty formality, keeping in view that the maximum period of provisional attachment under section 83 ibid is only one year.