Natural justice in tax assessment requires clear notice and personal hearing before penalty or liability is imposed.

Assessment orders were unsustainable where penalty was imposed without clear prior notice and the assessee was denied a personal hearing. For 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, the notices did not propose penalty, yet penalty was included in the final orders; for 2015-2016, the notice referred to penalty without clearly stating the provision invoked. The assessee's objection on assessment under Section 5 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 read with Rule 8(5)(d) was also not considered. The impugned assessments were quashed for breach of natural justice and remitted for fresh assessment after granting personal hearing.

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Issues: Whether the assessment orders for the assessment years 2013-2014, 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 were liable to be set aside for violation of natural justice and the matter remitted for fresh assessment.

Analysis: The notices for the assessment years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 did not propose penalty, yet penalty was imposed in the final orders. For 2015-2016, the notice referred to penalty but did not clearly disclose the provision under which it was sought to be imposed. In all the years, the petitioner was not given personal hearing before finalisation of the assessments. The petitioner's objection regarding assessment under Section 5 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 read with Rule 8(5)(d) also had not been considered in the absence of a proper hearing.

Conclusion: The assessment orders were unsustainable for breach of natural justice and were set aside, with a direction to redo the assessments after granting personal hearing.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions succeeded to the extent that the impugned assessments were quashed and the matter was remitted for fresh consideration.

Ratio Decidendi: An assessment imposing penalty or determining tax liability without proper notice and opportunity of personal hearing violates the principles of natural justice and is liable to be set aside.

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