Personal hearing before the deciding authority is mandatory when reassessment notice and order are issued by different officers.

Where a reassessment notice is issued by one officer and the final assessment is passed by another, the assessee must be given a personal hearing by the officer who decides the matter. Section 22(4) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, read with settled principles of natural justice, requires a meaningful opportunity of hearing before any adverse reassessment order is made. Because that hearing was not granted, the reassessment order was vitiated for violation of natural justice and could not be sustained, with the matter liable to be remanded for fresh consideration.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment order was vitiated for want of personal hearing when the notice and the final order were issued by different officers, and whether the assessment was liable to be set aside on violation of natural justice.

Analysis: The notice for reassessment had been issued by one officer, while the impugned assessment order was passed by another. In such a situation, the assessee was entitled to a personal hearing before the officer who ultimately decided the matter. The statutory requirement under section 22(4) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, together with the settled principles of natural justice, mandated that the assessee be heard before an adverse order was passed. Since that opportunity was not granted, the reassessment could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The reassessment order was vitiated for violation of natural justice and lack of personal hearing, and the matter was liable to be remanded for fresh consideration.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the authority issuing the notice and the authority passing the assessment are different, the assessee must be afforded a personal hearing by the deciding authority before an adverse order is made.

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