Natural justice breached where hearing and deciding authorities differed; adjudication order set aside and remanded.

An adjudication order is vitiated where the authority that decides the show cause notice did not itself hear the parties. The record, including the order sheet and RTI material, showed that the hearing was conducted by the Additional Commissioner, while the impugned order was signed by the Principal Commissioner, and the discrepancy in the hearing date reinforced the mismatch. This breach of basic natural justice required the order to be set aside and the matter remanded for fresh adjudication by the competent authority, with liberty to the assessee to raise all permissible submissions.

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Issues: Whether the order-in-original was vitiated because the adjudicating authority who passed it had not personally heard the matter, thereby offending principles of natural justice.

Analysis: The record, including the order sheet and the information supplied under the Right to Information Act, showed that the hearing had in fact been conducted by the Additional Commissioner, while the impugned order was signed and passed by the Principal Commissioner. The discrepancy in the recorded hearing date also supported the conclusion that the officer who decided the show cause notice was not the officer who heard the parties. Such a mismatch between the hearing authority and the deciding authority was held to be contrary to basic principles of natural justice.

Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the matter was remanded for fresh adjudication by the competent adjudicating authority. The assessee may raise all permissible submissions in the remanded proceedings.

Ratio Decidendi: An adjudication order is vitiated where the authority deciding the matter did not itself hear the case, and the defect requires setting aside of the order and remand for fresh decision.

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