Section 29 of the CGST Act, 2017—Registration – Death of Proprietor – The petitioner assailed the inaction of the respondent No.4 in opening the portal qua the petitioner so as to allow it to complete the tax liability. The petitioner submitted that erstwhile proprietor of the firm expired on 31.01.2018 whereupon, an intimation was forwarded to the respondent Department. The counsel of the petitioner submitted that information regarding death of the proprietor was forwarded to the respondents albeit in a wrong performa and merely on this technical ground, the respondents have not acted upon the same. He placed reliance on circular No.96/15/2019-GST dated 28.03.2019. The counsel for the respondents submitted that the GSTIN of the transferee and the transferor were not linked only on account of the information not being provided electronically on the common portal in FORM GST REG-16. The court observed that this absolute hypertechnical ground cannot be considered valid so as to deny the petitioner from the opportunity to link the GSTIN of his father’s firm with the new GSTIN number of the firm. The petitioner gave the intimation about the death of the proprietor of the firm which fact establishes his bonafides that he is desirous of removing the anomalies and clearing off the tax liability.

Held that:- The Hon’ble High Court directed the respondents to activate the common portal and allow the petitioner to upload the appropriate information in FORM REG-16 within next 30 days. As soon as the information is provided, the GSTIN number of the transferee and the transferor shall be linked as per clause 3(b) of the Circular dated 28.03.2019.