Natural justice requires a requested personal hearing in complex assessments, and writ jurisdiction remains open despite an alternate remedy.

A reasonable opportunity to show cause under the assessment provision included oral hearing where the assessee specifically requested it and the dispute involved factual complexity. The Commissioner's circular, which treated personal hearing as unnecessary unless required by statute or sought by the assessee, supported that interpretation. Denial of the requested hearing constituted a breach of natural justice and vitiated the assessment order. The availability of an appellate remedy did not bar writ jurisdiction, because violations of natural justice fall within the recognised exceptions to the alternate-remedy rule under Article 226.

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Issues: Whether a writ petition could be entertained notwithstanding the availability of an appellate remedy when the assessment order was alleged to have been passed in violation of natural justice by denying a requested personal hearing; and whether, on the facts, the assessee was entitled to a personal hearing under the assessment provision read with the Commissioner's circular.

Analysis: The assessment provision requiring a reasonable opportunity to show cause was read in the light of the Commissioner's circular, which stated that personal hearing need not be given unless the statute requires it or the assessee asks for it. Since a specific request for personal hearing had been made and the dispute involved questions of factual complexity, fairness in procedure required oral hearing. The rule of alternate remedy did not bar writ jurisdiction where there was violation of natural justice, as such cases fall within the recognised exceptions to self-imposed restraint under Article 226. The contemporaneous administrative construction placed by the department on the provision reinforced this interpretation.

Conclusion: The denial of personal hearing vitiated the assessment order, and the writ petition was maintainable despite the alternative remedy. The assessee succeeded on this issue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessee specifically seeks personal hearing and the governing assessment provision is administratively construed to permit such hearing, a reasonable opportunity to show cause includes oral hearing when fairness so requires, and a writ petition is maintainable notwithstanding an alternative remedy if natural justice is violated.

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