Effective GST personal hearing and reasoned orders are mandatory before adverse adjudication can be sustained.

Effective personal hearing under GST requires notice of the date, time and venue when an adverse adjudication is contemplated. Section 75(4) requires that opportunity, and a taxpayer's selection of "No" in a hearing column does not remove the obligation to provide an effective hearing. Section 75(6) also requires the adjudication order to state relevant facts and the basis for its decision. An order that merely records a conclusion without reasons or consideration of the reply is non-speaking and breaches natural justice. The note states that the impugned adjudication order was invalid on both grounds.

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Issues: Whether an adjudication order under the GST law could stand where the notices and reminders omitted the date, time and venue of personal hearing, no effective hearing opportunities were afforded, and the order was non-speaking.

Analysis: Section 75(4) mandates an opportunity of hearing where an adverse decision is contemplated, while Section 75(6) requires the order to state the relevant facts and basis of decision. The show-cause notice and all reminders recorded no date, time or venue for personal hearing. The petitioners' selection of "No" in the hearing column did not dispense with the statutory obligation to provide an effective hearing before an adverse determination. The two-line order also failed to disclose reasons or consideration of the material placed in reply.

Conclusion: The impugned adjudication order was invalid for breach of natural justice and for being non-speaking; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

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