Delhi HC permitted assessee to collect 2 crores from provisionally attached bank accounts to pay salaries of employees

Case details: SPNN Business Services (P.) Ltd. v. Commissioner of Central Tax (GST), Delhi - [2021] 129 taxmann.com 207 (Delhi)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Rajiv Shakdher and Talwant Singh, JJ. 
  • Tarun Gulati, Sr. Adv, Ms. Vibhooti Malhotra and Bhuvnesh Satija, Advs. for the Petitioner. 
  • Satish Aggarwala, SPP, Jasneet Jolly, Gagan Vaswani, Advs. and I.O. Ajab Singh for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The Adjudicating Authority issued an order to provisionally attach eleven bank accounts of the petitioner company. The petitioner company was not able to pay salaries and other dues of its employees and it was also not able to pay amounts claimed by department. It approached High Court for interim directions for lifting provisional attachment so that its bank accounts could become operable and it would be able to pay salaries and other dues concerning its employees and also pay amounts claimed by department.

High Court Held

The Honorable High Court observed that the provisional attachment was ordered by the department due to which 11 bank accounts of the petitioner company have become inoperable. It was also observed that department had not carried out an assessment yet. The cumulative amount outstanding as per department would be Rs. 20.22 crores which includes the principal amount of Rs. 17.26 crores and interest amounting to Rs. 2.96 crores. However, presently, the concern of the Court was with regard to the employees engaged by the petitioner-company. Therefore, it was directed to permit the petitioner company to collect from bank accounts a sum of Rs. 2 crores to pay salaries of employees and balance amount available in bank accounts will be deposited with department.