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Informist, Monday, Mar. 9, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Monday dismissed a public interest litigation challenging the power of the income tax department to search and seize virtual digital spaces like personal digital devices and cloud servers. The bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant noted petitioner Vishwaprasad Alva's statement that he will approach the government for the relief sought in the petition. Under law, tax authorities can conduct searches when there is a "reason to believe" that income has been concealed.

 

"You want a heaven for tax evaders?" Chief Justice Kant remarked while hearing Alva's plea. Refusing relief to the petitioner, the top court said it cannot declare the provision regarding search and seize digital devices as "unconstitutional".

 

On Feb. 10, the apex court had remarked that much of the digital evidence was stored on devices or in the cloud, and without search powers, investigations could be frustrated. "If notice is given for this search and seizure, there is a potential for destroying the evidence. The best way to snub out such an investigation against the digital record is to destroy the device itself," remarked the bench. The top court had observed that the income tax authorities' power was not uncontrolled, as it operates subject to pre-conditions, and added that the challenge is based on apprehension at this stage.

 

Alva, an entrepreneur, had challenged the provision in the Income Tax Act, 1961 and the corresponding provision in the Income Tax Act, 2025, that allegedly permitted highly intrusive searches of digital devices such as laptops and mobile phones, as well as access to emails, private chats, cloud-stored data, and other electronic information without any prior judicial approval. This amounts to a serious invasion of informational privacy protected under Article 21 of the Constitution, said the petitioner.

 

Alva argued that the clauses create an "anticipatory search" framework, where search powers can be exercised even without any existing violation of tax law. Less intrusive mechanisms such as summons, surveys, and assessments already exist under the law, and allowing full-scale digital searches on speculative grounds fails the test of proportionality, said Alva.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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