Natural justice in tax reassessment requires meaningful consideration of objections and personal hearing before estimating turnover.

An assessment under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 was found unsustainable where turnover was estimated from a single day's sales, the assessee's written objections were not meaningfully addressed, and a specific request for personal hearing was refused. The Court applied the principles of natural justice and noted the departmental requirement of hearing, holding that failure to consider the objections and denial of personal hearing vitiated the reassessment. The assessment order was quashed and the matter remanded for fresh consideration after affording the assessee sufficient opportunity, including personal hearing.

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Issues: Whether the assessment based on one day sales turnover without proper consideration of objections and without granting personal hearing was sustainable.

Analysis: The assessee, a restaurant dealer under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, had challenged the reassessment on the ground that turnover could not be estimated on the basis of one day sales. The objections raised in reply were not duly dealt with in the assessment order, though they were supported by judicial authorities. The assessee had also specifically sought a personal hearing. In the context of tax assessment under the Act and the departmental circular requiring hearing, the denial of personal hearing and the failure to consider the objections rendered the assessment unsustainable.

Conclusion: The assessment order was quashed and the matter was remanded for fresh consideration after affording sufficient opportunity of hearing, including personal hearing, to the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: An assessment under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 cannot be sustained where objections are not meaningfully considered and the assessee is denied personal hearing despite a specific request, since such procedure violates the principles of natural justice.

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