Natural justice under Sabka Vishwas Scheme requires hearing before adverse rejection of an application can be sustained.

Under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, an adverse rejection of an application cannot stand where the applicant was not afforded a hearing before the Designated Committee acted. The text notes that section 127 contemplates an opportunity of hearing before an adverse decision, and that procedural fairness becomes material when eligibility is specifically asserted and prior communications are challenged as unheard. In such circumstances, rejection without hearing violates natural justice. The adverse communications were therefore set aside, and the application was directed to be reconsidered after granting an opportunity of hearing.

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Issues: Whether the rejection of the application under the Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme, 2019 without granting an opportunity of hearing was sustainable.

Analysis: The application was rejected on the basis that the amount had neither been quantified nor communicated to the assessee. Since the petitioner specifically asserted eligibility under the Scheme and raised a plea that it had not been heard before the adverse communications were issued, the procedural fairness requirement became material. Section 127 of the Scheme contemplates an opportunity of hearing before the Designated Committee passes an adverse decision, and the petitioner's case could not be decided without affording such hearing.

Conclusion: The rejection was not sustainable, and the adverse communications were set aside with a direction to reconsider the application after giving the petitioner an opportunity of hearing.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute or scheme contemplates hearing before an adverse determination, an order rejecting the application without affording such hearing violates natural justice and cannot be sustained.

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