Natural justice breached when an undisclosed post-hearing expert report was relied on to decide the adjudication.

An adjudication order was held to be vitiated where it relied on an expert panel report prepared after the hearing and never furnished to the appellant. Since the appellant had no opportunity to meet material generated post-hearing, the reliance on that undisclosed report amounted to a breach of natural justice. The order was set aside and the matter remanded to the adjudicating authority for fresh determination in compliance with natural justice.

---

---

Issues: Whether the adjudication order was vitiated for breach of natural justice because it relied upon an expert panel report prepared after the hearing and not supplied to the appellant.

Analysis: The hearing before the adjudicating authority had taken place before the expert panel report was prepared, yet the impugned order relied on that report without furnishing it to the appellant. Reliance on material generated after the hearing, without giving the appellant an opportunity to meet it, amounted to a failure of natural justice.

Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the matter was remanded to the adjudicating authority for fresh determination after compliance with the rules of natural justice.

---