Individual notice requirement under Punjab VAT assessment power held mandatory, making website publication alone insufficient and assessments void.

Where the Punjab VAT Act required individual notice as a condition precedent for invoking assessment power under Section 29(4), a general notice published only on the department's website was insufficient. The assessments were also completed beyond the three-year period prescribed under that provision, and the absence of individual service rendered the assessment procedure defective. The Punjab & Haryana HC held that substituted publication did not satisfy the mandatory notice requirement, so the notices and resulting assessment orders were invalid and void. The impugned assessment proceedings could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether notices and assessment orders issued under Section 29(4) of the Punjab Value Added Tax Act, 2005 were valid when no individual notice was served and only general notice was published on the department's website.

Analysis: The assessments were completed beyond the three-year period prescribed under Section 29(4), and the matter turned on the mode of service required for invoking the assessment power. The applicable rule was held to require service of an individual notice as a condition precedent, and a general notice or website publication was held insufficient for that purpose. In the absence of individual notice, the assessment procedure was treated as defective and the resultant assessment orders were held to be unsustainable.

Conclusion: The notices and assessment orders were invalid and void for want of individual notice.

Final Conclusion: The petitions succeeded and the impugned assessment proceedings could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute and rules require individual notice as a condition for invoking the assessment power, substituted general notice or website publication does not satisfy the mandatory requirement and any assessment made without such notice is void.

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