Natural justice requires a meaningful hearing before adverse tax assessment; premature personal hearing made the order unsustainable.

An assessment order under Section 73(9) could not be sustained where the personal hearing was fixed before the expiry of the time allowed to file a reply to the show cause notice, as this denied the assessee an effective opportunity to respond. The Court held that such sequencing was inconsistent with the statutory scheme and violated the principles of natural justice. The assessment order was quashed, and the matter was remitted to the Assessing Officer to restart from the show cause stage, receive the reply, and then fix a fresh personal hearing.

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Issues: Whether the assessment order passed under Section 73(9) could be sustained when the date of personal hearing was fixed prior to the last date for filing reply to the show cause notice, thereby depriving the assessee of an effective opportunity of hearing.

Analysis: The show cause notice granted time to file reply up to a later date, but the personal hearing was fixed earlier. Such sequencing made the hearing ineffective and inconsistent with the statutory scheme governing determination of tax liability, which contemplates a meaningful opportunity to respond before adverse adjudication. The breach of this fair hearing requirement amounted to violation of the principles of natural justice.

Conclusion: The assessment order could not be sustained and was quashed. The matter was remitted to the Assessing Officer to resume from the stage of the show cause notice, permit filing of reply, and thereafter fix a fresh date for personal hearing.

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