Deemed registration on succession to a deceased dealer preserves continuity and prevents a break in VAT registration.

On the death of a registered dealer, the legal representative is deemed to be the dealer under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, so registration continuity is preserved and no break arises merely because a fresh certificate is issued later. Section 26 supplies the substantive deeming fiction, while the succession and registration provisions, including the rules requiring a fresh application, must be read harmoniously and cannot defeat that statutory continuity. The registration certificate could also be amended to reflect succession. The refusal to recognise deemed registration from the date of death until issue of the fresh registration was therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether, on the death of a registered dealer, the legal representative was entitled to be treated as a deemed registered dealer from the date of death so as to avoid a break in registration, notwithstanding the grant of a fresh registration with prospective effect.

Analysis: Section 26 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 creates a deeming fiction that on the death of a dealer, the executor, administrator or other legal representative is deemed to be the dealer for purposes of the Act. Section 38(4) of the same Act regulates succession and registration, but it is procedural and cannot override the substantive deeming provision in section 26. The registration certificate could also have been amended under section 39(14), and section 39(10) indicates that a registration continues until cancelled or until closure of business. Rule 4(7) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Rules, 2007, requiring an application for fresh registration, had to be read harmoniously with the Act so that succession to the business does not create a vacuum in registration.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to be treated as a deemed registered dealer from the date of death of the husband until the date of issue of the fresh registration, and the refusal to recognise continuity of registration was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The statutory scheme was held to preserve continuity of registration on succession to a deceased dealer's business, and the legal representative could not be left without registration for the intervening period.

Ratio Decidendi: A legal representative succeeding to the business of a deceased registered dealer is deemed to be the dealer under the Act, and procedural registration requirements must be construed harmoniously so as not to interrupt continuity of registration.

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