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The Supreme Court today (25 September) adjourned till Monday the hearing of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Advocate Puneet Batra challenging the Delhi High Court's judgment which upheld the search and seizure conducted by the GST Department (Goods and Services Tax Department) at the office of his cabin and law firm, Bass Legal LLP.

A bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu was to hear an SLP filed against the Delhi High Court judgment that held that advocate-client privilege cannot operate as an absolute bar against investigating a lawyer's own conduct where the authorities place prima facie material suggesting that the lawyer may have acted beyond the role of a legal adviser and become involved in the affairs under investigation.

The High Court Division Bench of Justice Anil Khetarpal and Justice Shail Jain had dismissed Batra's petition, holding that the search was conducted pursuant to a valid authorisation under Section 67(2) of the Central Goods and Services Tax, 2017 (CGST Act).

Aggrieved by the Delhi High Court's ruling, Batra (petitioner) filed an SLP before the Supreme Court. The matter was posted to be heard today. However, the bench could not hear it today as it received the matter late in the evening yesterday and could not go through the brief. The bench, instead, asked the parties if the matter could be posted to Monday.

Senior Advocate N Hariharan, appearing for the petitioner, apprised the bench that the GST Department had issued summons to the petitioner for Monday. On this, Justice Datta asked the GST Department to not take any action against the petitioner till Monday.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju contended that the case was not one of the lawyer-client relationship. To this, Justice Datta remarked, “you know the facts, we don't know.” The ASG further submitted that a lot of incriminating data was coming up in the investigation. On this, Justice Datta observed, “just wait for the weekend, we will take it up on Monday.”

The bench accordingly posted the matter to Monday (28 September), and also orally directed the GST Department not to take any action against the petitioner till then.

Case: Puneet Batra v Union of India (Diary No. 59119/2026)

Appearance:

For Petitioner: Mr. N Hariharan, Sr. Adv.; Mr Nikhil Jain, AOR

For Respondent: ASG SV Raju