Section 67 explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.
A GST search is not conducted in a procedural vacuum. The Act imports the criminal law's search safeguards wholesale, with a single modification.
Section 67(10): the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 relating to search and seizure shall, so far as may be, apply to search and seizure under this section, subject to the modification that sub-section (5) of section 165 of the Code shall have effect as if for the word "Magistrate", wherever it occurs, the word "Commissioner" were substituted. So the CrPC's search safeguards — independent witnesses, the search list, the record of the search — apply, and the record that would go to a Magistrate goes to the Commissioner.
What gets imported
The reference is to "the provisions... relating to search and seizure", which in the Code are principally in sections 100 and 165.
Section 100 CrPC — search of a closed place. Its familiar requirements:
- the person in charge shall allow free ingress and afford reasonable facilities for the search;
- the officer shall, before making a search, call upon two or more independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality to attend and witness the search;
- the search shall be made in their presence;
- a list of all things seized and of the places in which they were found shall be prepared by the officer and signed by the witnesses;
- the occupant of the place searched, or a person on his behalf, shall be permitted to attend during the search, and shall be given a copy of the list signed by the witnesses;
- a person searched personally shall be given a copy of the list of things taken from them.
Section 165 CrPC — search by a police officer, whose sub-section (5) requires copies of any record made to be sent to the Magistrate — read here as the Commissioner.
"So far as may be"
The words qualify the import. The Code's provisions apply to the extent they can sensibly apply to a GST search.
That is not a licence to disregard them. It accommodates mechanical mismatches — references to police officers, to cognizable offences, to a station house — while leaving the substance of the safeguards intact. The requirements of independent witnesses, a signed list, and a copy to the occupant translate directly and are the ones that matter in practice.
The panchnama
The panchnama is the record made under these provisions: an account of the search, prepared in the presence of the witnesses (the panchas), listing what was found and where.
It is the single most consequential document produced during a search, because it is contemporaneous and signed. What it says will be treated as what happened.
Read it fully before signing. Every page, not only the last.
Check these specifically:
- the time of entry and exit, and the times of significant events;
- who was present, including the two independent witnesses and whether they were actually present throughout;
- whether it records access as having been "denied" or "refused" — the trigger for s.67(4) sealing and breaking open, and a word that should not stand if it is not accurate; Section 67(4) →
- the description of what was found and where — vague entries are worth objecting to now;
- whether it records what was examined but not seized;
- whether any statement attributed to a person is accurately recorded;
- whether the list of things seized matches the Rule 139(5) inventory.
Record disagreements on the document itself, before signing, in your own words. A separate letter written later is far weaker than a correction on the face of the panchnama.
Ask for a copy — the imported CrPC provisions contemplate the occupant receiving one, and refusal should itself be recorded.
The witnesses
The requirement is for independent and respectable inhabitants of the locality.
Independent means not connected with the department and not connected with the taxpayer. Departmental staff, drivers, or persons brought along from another location do not satisfy the description; nor do the taxpayer's own employees.
Of the locality means from the neighbourhood of the place searched.
Present at the search — not merely signing at the end. A witness who arrives to sign a completed panchnama has not witnessed anything.
Where witnesses are absent, not independent, or brought in only to sign, that should be recorded on the panchnama at the time. It is a point that is nearly impossible to establish later and comparatively easy to establish then.
Section 165(5) and the Commissioner
Section 165(5) CrPC requires copies of the record made in the course of a search to be sent to the nearest Magistrate, and the occupant of the place searched is entitled, on application, to a copy from the Magistrate free of cost.
Section 67(10) substitutes "Commissioner" for "Magistrate". So:
- the record of the search must be sent to the Commissioner; and
- the occupant may apply to the Commissioner for a copy.
This is a real and under-used entitlement. Where a panchnama copy was not given on the day, an application to the Commissioner is the statutory route to it — and the making of that application is itself a useful contemporaneous record.
The substitution also means the Commissioner supervises. The ICAI handbook makes this point under the heading "duty of Magistrate to be exercised by Commissioner": the oversight the Code places on a judicial officer is placed here on the Commissioner, which is a reason to address complaints about the conduct of a search to that office.
Key takeaways
- Section 67(10) imports the CrPC's search and seizure provisions, "so far as may be".
- That brings in two independent and respectable local witnesses, a signed list of things seized and where found, and a copy to the occupant.
- The panchnama is the decisive contemporaneous record — read it fully and correct it before signing.
- The word "denied" in relation to access should never stand unchallenged if inaccurate.
- Section 165(5) as modified sends the record to the Commissioner, from whom a copy may be sought.
- Defects in the witnesses must be recorded at the time to be worth anything later.
Read next
- Section 67(4): The Power to Seal or Break Open
- Rule 139 and the INS Forms: The Search and Seizure Procedure
- Challenging "Reasons to Believe" in a GST Search
- Seizure of Electronic Records and Digital Evidence
Disclaimer: Positions stated as on 5 September 2026, based on the CGST Act and Rules as amended to 31 March 2026 (ICAI Bare Law, 12th edition) and the ICAI Handbook on Inspection, Search, Seizure and Arrest under GST (July 2025).