Fair hearing and reasoned order required before rejecting revision under income-tax law; matter remanded.

A revision application under section 264 of the Income-tax Act could not be rejected without affording a fair personal hearing and addressing the assessee's contentions in a reasoned order. The Gujarat HC found that the rejection order dealt cursorily with the objections and relied only on the view that a reference to section 264 in the assessment order did not by itself justify acceptance of the revision. The impugned order was quashed and set aside, and the matter was remanded for fresh consideration after dealing with all submissions and, if necessary, granting an opportunity of hearing.

---

---

Issues: Whether the order rejecting the revision application under section 264 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, without granting personal hearing and without dealing with the assessee's contentions by a reasoned order, was liable to be set aside and the matter remanded.

Analysis: The Assessing Officer had indicated that the assessee could pursue a revision under section 264, and the assessee accordingly filed the application and requested a personal hearing. The rejection was made without granting such hearing and the objections raised in the reply were dealt with cursorily. The decision was founded only on the view that the mere reference to section 264 in the assessment order could not justify acceptance of the revision application.

Conclusion: The impugned order was quashed and set aside, and the matter was remanded to the competent authority to reconsider the revision application after dealing with all contentions by a reasoned order and, if considered necessary, after affording an opportunity of hearing. The writ petition was partly allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: A revision application under section 264 cannot be rejected without a fair opportunity of hearing and a reasoned consideration of the contentions raised.

---