Pawan Kumar (Deceased) Vs Commissioner of DGST & Anr (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court heard a petition concerning the cancellation of GST registration of a firm owned by the deceased petitioner, Pawan Kumar, represented by his son as the legal representative. The petitioner sought that the GST registration be cancelled only from the date of the Show Cause Notice, 2nd September 2021, and not retrospectively from 28th December 2018, as was ordered in the impugned cancellation dated 27th December 2021.
The petitioner had passed away on 9th November 2020, prior to the issuance of the Show Cause Notice. The Court observed that the Show Cause Notice itself was issued in the name of a deceased person and therefore could not be legally sustained on this ground alone. Further, the Court referred to its earlier decision in Riddhi Siddhi Enterprises vs. Commissioner of Goods and Services Tax, which held that retrospective cancellation of GST registration is impermissible if the Show Cause Notice did not contemplate such retrospective action.
Based on these observations, the Court quashed the Show Cause Notice dated 2nd September 2021 and the subsequent cancellation order of 27th December 2021. At the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that business operations had already ceased after the death of the proprietor and consented to cancellation of the GST registration effective from the date of the Show Cause Notice.
