Tribunal reference procedure cannot be undone unilaterally once a three-member Bench has fully heard the appeal.

When a three-member Bench has already been constituted under the tribunal's reference procedure to resolve a difference of opinion, one member of that larger Bench cannot unilaterally decide that the reference was unwarranted and dispose of the appeal on merits. Regulation 28 permits the President to resolve a divided Bench by hearing the point of difference or referring it for hearing to another member or members, but once the matter had been fully heard by the larger Bench, the question of the validity of that reference could not be determined by a single member acting alone. The order was therefore treated as without authority, and the proper course was rehearing of the appeal by the same three-member Bench.

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Issues: Whether, after a Bench of three members had been constituted under Section 11(6) of the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 to resolve a difference of opinion, the President of the Tribunal could unilaterally hold that the reference to that Bench was unwarranted and dispose of the appeal on merits.

Analysis: Regulation 28 of the Bombay Sales Tax Tribunal Regulations, 1960 permits the President, where members of a Bench are equally divided, to hear the point of difference himself or, if the matter involves a substantial point of law, to refer it for hearing to one or more other members, including himself when he was not a member of the original Bench. In the present case, a larger Bench of three members had already been constituted and had fully heard the appeal. Once that course had been adopted, the question whether the reference itself was unwarranted could not be decided by only one member of that larger Bench. The order made by the President on the adjourned date was therefore passed without authority, and in any event the parties had not been heard on that question. The proper course, even otherwise, was to have the appeal reheard by the same three-member Bench.

Conclusion: The unilateral order of the President was illegal and the subsequent judgment was liable to be set aside, with the matter remanded to the same larger Bench for rehearing in accordance with law.

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