Natural justice requires a meaningful chance to reply before tax adjudication; ex parte order set aside and remitted.

An ex parte adjudication order passed without affording a meaningful opportunity to reply to the show cause notice may be set aside where the denial of hearing causes prejudice and prevents a proper merits-based determination. The High Court found that the tax demand, involving issues such as alleged non-payment of tax, interest, late fee, reversal of input tax credit, reverse charge liability, and credit mismatch, could not be conclusively decided without the petitioner's response. The order was therefore set aside and the matter remitted to the stage of reply, with directions to file a reply and appear before the authority.

---

---

Issues: Whether an ex parte adjudication order passed without the benefit of a reply to the show cause notice should be set aside and the matter remitted for fresh consideration.

Analysis: The order under challenge was passed on multiple tax-related grounds, including alleged non-payment of tax, interest, late fee, reversal of input tax credit, reverse charge liability, and mismatch of credit. As the order was made without affording the petitioner an effective opportunity to place its stand on the documents and merits of each allegation, substantive adjudication was found to be prejudiced. The absence of a reply caused serious prejudice, and the controversy required a proper response from the petitioner before adjudication could be concluded.

Conclusion: The ex parte order was set aside and the matter was remitted to the stage of reply to the show cause notice, with the petitioner directed to file a reply and appear before the authority.

Final Conclusion: The petitioner succeeded in securing restoration of the adjudicatory process so that the tax dispute may be decided afresh after hearing both sides.

Ratio Decidendi: An adjudication order passed without affording a meaningful opportunity to reply to the show cause notice may be set aside where such denial of hearing causes prejudice and prevents proper merits-based determination.

---