Reasoned speaking order required in tax reassessment; ignoring dealer objections violates natural justice and leads to remand.

A tax assessing authority acting quasi-judicially must pass a reasoned speaking order that deals with the dealer's objections after issuing a revision notice. Here, the reassessment orders under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 were found to be non-speaking because they ignored the dealer's reply, gave no reasons for rejecting the objections, and did not show proper application of mind. That defect violated natural justice, so the orders were set aside and the matter was remitted for fresh disposal after considering the objections and granting a hearing.

---

---

Issues: Whether the reassessment orders under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 were liable to be set aside for being non-speaking orders passed without dealing with the dealer's objections and without affording effective hearing.

Analysis: The assessing authority issued revision notices proposing tax and penalty under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 and received a detailed reply from the dealer. The impugned orders, however, did not advert to the objections raised, did not record reasons for rejecting them, and did not show application of mind to the dealer's explanations. In tax adjudication, an assessing authority acting in a quasi-judicial capacity must pass a reasoned order dealing with each material objection raised in reply to a notice. An order that ignores the objections and proceeds without proper reasoning violates the principles of natural justice.

Conclusion: The impugned orders were non-speaking orders and were rightly set aside. The matter was remitted to the respondent for fresh disposal after considering the objections and granting hearing.

Ratio Decidendi: When a taxing authority issues notice and receives objections, it must pass a reasoned speaking order dealing with the objections; failure to do so vitiates the assessment and warrants remand for fresh adjudication.

---