Registration cancellation without prior hearing and consequential assessments quashed under the Karnataka Value Added Tax framework.

Cancellation of a dealer's registration under the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act was found unsustainable where the later registration for separate units had already been issued by another assessing authority within the same department and could have been regularised ex post facto. The Commissioner's sole objection was absence of prior approval under Section 38(6), but the adverse order was also passed without giving the assessee a hearing, making it procedurally defective. The consequential assessment orders under Section 39(1) could not survive once the principal cancellation order failed, and both were quashed.

---

---

Issues: Whether cancellation of the assessee's registration for failure to obtain prior approval for separate units under Section 38(6) of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 was sustainable, and whether the consequential orders could stand when passed without prior hearing.

Analysis: The assessee already held registrations issued by authorities of the same department for different units. The impugned cancellation was made by the Commissioner solely on the ground that prior approval had not been obtained from him, but the cancellation was also passed without affording any opportunity of hearing. The Court held that the Commissioner could have regularised the later registration ex post facto, since the registration had been issued by another assessing authority within the same department. An adverse order cancelling registration without prior hearing was held to be unsustainable. The consequential assessment orders under Section 39(1) also fell with the principal order.

Conclusion: The cancellation of registration and the consequential assessment orders were quashed, and the writ petitions were allowed.

---