Binding remand directions bar a second show cause notice and fresh adjudication in tax proceedings.

Issuing a second show cause notice after a remand direction to decide the first notice, grant personal hearing, and consider the reply was impermissible because it departed from binding writ directions and overreached the Court's earlier order. The Telangana HC set aside the fresh adjudication on that legal ground alone, without examining the merits of the tax demand. The matter was remanded to the assessing authority to pass a fresh order only on the first show cause notice, after affording personal hearing and considering the reply in accordance with law.

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Issues: Whether the assessing authority could issue a second show cause notice and pass a fresh adjudication order after the matter had already been remanded with a direction to adjudicate the first notice after granting personal hearing and considering the reply.

Analysis: The directions in the earlier round required the assessing authority to proceed on the basis of the first show cause notice, afford personal hearing, and consider the reply before passing a fresh order. Instead of complying with that course, the authority issued a second show cause notice and proceeded to adjudication. Such a course was held impermissible because it departed from the binding directions issued in the earlier writ proceedings and amounted to overreaching the Court's order. The Court therefore interfered with the impugned adjudication on that legal ground alone, without entering into the merits of the tax demand.

Conclusion: The impugned adjudication order was set aside and the matter was remanded to the assessing authority to pass an order on the first show cause notice after granting personal hearing and considering the reply in accordance with law.

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