Special audit under CGST cannot ordinarily be reopened after completion, and attachment challenges become infructuous once accounts are defreezed.

A special audit under Section 66 of the CGST Act, once conducted and reported upon, is treated as complete; directing a further report on a remaining balance amount would amount to a fresh audit outside the statutory scheme. The commentary also notes that a writ challenging provisional attachment of bank accounts loses practical significance once the Department lifts the attachment and the accounts are defreezed, because no effective relief remains for adjudication. On that basis, the interim request for a further audit was rejected and the challenge to the attachment orders became infructuous.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether a further special audit report could be directed after completion of the special audit under Section 66 of the CGST Act in respect of the remaining amount claimed to be unauthenticated; (ii) whether the writ petition challenging the provisional attachment of bank accounts survived after the accounts were defreezed.

Issue (i): Whether a further special audit report could be directed after completion of the special audit under Section 66 of the CGST Act in respect of the remaining amount claimed to be unauthenticated.

Analysis: Section 66 contemplates a special audit where the case is complex and the officer, with prior approval, directs examination of records by a nominated chartered accountant or cost accountant. Once the audit is conducted and a report is submitted, the exercise reaches completion. Reopening the completed audit by directing another report on a limited balance amount would amount to a fresh audit outside the statutory scheme. The earlier audit had been undertaken for a limited purpose connected with the attachment proceedings, and that purpose no longer survived.

Conclusion: The request for a further audit report was rejected and the interim application failed.

Issue (ii): Whether the writ petition challenging the provisional attachment of bank accounts survived after the accounts were defreezed.

Analysis: The impugned attachment orders had been passed in relation to the bank accounts, but the Department had subsequently lifted the attachment and the accounts stood defreezed. Since the subject matter of challenge no longer subsisted, no effective relief remained for adjudication in the writ petition.

Conclusion: The writ petition had become infructuous.

Final Conclusion: The interim application was rejected and the challenge to the attachment orders was rendered academic because the attached accounts had already been released.

Ratio Decidendi: A special audit under Section 66 of the CGST Act, once completed and reported upon, cannot ordinarily be reopened through a supplementary audit request, and a writ challenging provisional attachment becomes infructuous when the attachment itself is withdrawn.

---