GST personal hearing requirement vitiates assessment where hearing was requested and denied, justifying writ intervention.

Where the GST statute requires a personal hearing before an adverse order, failure to grant that hearing after the assessee expressly requested it vitiates the assessment as a breach of natural justice. The notice did not specify any date, time or venue for hearing, so the statutory mandate under section 75(4) was not satisfied. That gross violation also justified writ interference despite the alternative remedy. The assessment order was therefore set aside and the matter remitted for fresh decision after affording the assessee an opportunity of hearing.

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Issues: Whether the assessment order under the GST law was vitiated for want of opportunity of personal hearing despite the assessee's request, and whether the writ petition was maintainable notwithstanding the alternative remedy.

Analysis: Section 75(4) of the GST law requires the authority to grant an opportunity of hearing where a request is made or where an adverse decision is contemplated. The notice issued to the assessee did not specify any date, time or venue for personal hearing, and the reply filed in the prescribed form expressly opted for such hearing. In these circumstances, denial of hearing amounted to breach of the statutory mandate and a violation of the principles of natural justice. Such a defect also attracted the exception to the rule of alternative remedy, since gross violation of natural justice permits recourse to writ jurisdiction under Article 226.

Conclusion: The assessment order was illegal and liable to be set aside. The matter was remitted for fresh decision after affording an opportunity of hearing to the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The impugned assessment could not be sustained because the statutory right to a personal hearing was denied, and the matter required reconsideration in accordance with law after hearing the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: When the GST statute mandates a hearing before an adverse order and the assessee has requested such hearing, failure to intimate and grant it vitiates the assessment as a breach of natural justice, warranting writ interference despite alternative remedy.

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