Natural justice in tax assessment can justify writ relief when a meaningful hearing is denied despite an alternate appeal remedy.

A quasi-judicial tax assessment was held vulnerable to writ interference where the assessee received notice shortly before the assessment deadline and voluminous documents were supplied in stages, leaving no meaningful opportunity to respond. The court treated the hearing as an empty formality and held that the availability of a statutory appeal did not bar writ jurisdiction when breach of natural justice had prevented any real defence from being placed before the assessing authority. The assessment order was quashed and the matter remanded for fresh consideration after granting a reasonable opportunity to present the defence.

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Issues: Whether the assessment order was liable to be interfered with in writ jurisdiction for violation of natural justice despite the availability of statutory appeal; whether denial of sufficient opportunity to examine voluminous material vitiated the assessment.

Analysis: The assessment proceedings were initiated under the Rajasthan Value Added Tax Act, 2003 and the petitioner was served with notice only shortly before the assessment deadline. A large volume of documents was supplied in stages, leaving insufficient time to study the material and submit a defence. In these circumstances, the opportunity of hearing was not a meaningful pre-decisional hearing but an empty formality. The availability of appeal does not oust writ jurisdiction where there is a breach of natural justice, and an appellate remedy cannot be treated as effective when no defence has been properly placed before the assessing authority for consideration.

Conclusion: The assessment order was vitiated by violation of principles of natural justice and was rightly challenged in writ jurisdiction notwithstanding the alternate remedy.

Final Conclusion: The assessment order was quashed and the matter was remanded for fresh consideration after affording the petitioner a reasonable opportunity to present its defence.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a quasi-judicial tax assessment is made without affording a real and reasonable opportunity of hearing, the writ court may intervene despite an alternative appellate remedy, because breach of natural justice renders the statutory remedy ineffective in the circumstances.

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