Mandatory personal hearing in revisional proceedings vitiates assessment orders when the prescribed safeguard is not followed.

A departmental circular mandating personal hearing in revisional proceedings prevailed over a mere show-cause opportunity under section 16(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959. As the revisional orders were passed without affording the assessee the required hearing, the procedural safeguard was treated as mandatory and the orders could not be sustained. The revisional assessment orders were quashed and the matters remanded for fresh consideration after granting personal hearing.

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Issues: Whether the revisional assessment orders were liable to be quashed for denial of personal hearing before exercise of revisional power under section 16(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: The statutory scheme distinguishes between a mere reasonable opportunity to show cause and a reasonable opportunity of being heard. On the facts, the departmental circular governing exercise of revisional power required personal hearing, and the revisional orders were passed without affording such hearing. The earlier Division Bench decision was applicable in that context, and the impugned orders could not be sustained when the procedural safeguard prescribed by the circular was not followed.

Conclusion: The revisional assessment orders were quashed for denial of personal hearing, and the matters were remanded for fresh orders after granting such hearing to the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the Department has issued a circular mandating personal hearing in revisional proceedings, failure to provide that hearing vitiates the revisional order even if the statute speaks only of a reasonable opportunity to show cause.

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