Delhi HC Voices Concern Over Widow’s Struggle for GST Refund from Deceased Husband’s Firm

The Delhi High Court has recorded the ‘harrowing experience‘ of a widow being required to seek a GST refund from the tax department.

The firm’s GST registration, owned by her now deceased husband, was cancelled on his death. Though his widow asked for a refund of Rs 10,45,793 in the electronic cash ledger of the firm.

The GST department rejected the cited application, and thereafter, the amount without either being paid to the petitioner or being re-credited in the Ledger was debited from the Ledger.

After that, the applicant has approached the High Court claiming that the electronic cash ledger is in effect a deemed instrument of herm any amount dipicted in that is of her and the GST department could not hold back the cited amount.

The department on 9th May 2024 agreed to recredit the amount in 2 weeks into the Electronic Cash Ledger. As per that, her petition was disposed of.

The refund, even after this, was not allotted, and instead, an order came to be passed via the GST department stating that the refund shall not be obligated to be filed since the applicant is not a person enrolled with the GST department.

The applicant was dissatisfied with that and again approached the court.

The present writ petition specifies the second instance in which the applicant would need to approach the court for a refund, the HC noted.

“It is a matter of concern that almost a year ago, the same Petitioner had appeared before a Coordinate Bench of this Court, which, after considering the matter, directed that the refund amount be re-credited within two weeks. It is unfortunate to see that despite the said amount being in the Electronic cash ledger, the refund has not been given to the Petitioner to date,” the Court mentioned.

After that, the reason for not processing the refund is asked from the department.

As per the department, the important documents assisting the factum of death of the applicant’s husband were not included with the refund application.

While the applicant, the death of her husband, has stands proved earlier through the order of GST registration cancellation of his firm.

The court hearing this, asked the Assistant Commissioner to appear before it physically on the following date, i.e., May 05.

Appearance: Mr. Puneet Rai, Mr. Sushil Gaba, Mr. Kapil Sharma & Ms. Srishti Sharma, Advocates for Petitioner; Piyush Beriwal, Advocate for Respondent.