Natural justice requires a meaningful personal hearing; failure to consider an adjournment request led to setting aside and remand.

A request for adjournment must be considered objectively, and an adjudicating authority must ensure an effective opportunity of personal hearing before deciding the matter. Proceeding to adjudicate without responding properly to the adjournment request and without waiting for appearance on the scheduled date amounted to denial of natural justice, which vitiated the order. The adjudication order was set aside and the matter remanded for fresh adjudication after granting a proper hearing.

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Issues: Whether the adjudication order was liable to be set aside for denial of a proper opportunity of personal hearing and whether the matter required remand.

Analysis: The request for adjournment had been received, and it was incumbent on the adjudicating authority to consider it objectively, pass an appropriate order, and inform the party or counsel. By proceeding to decide the matter without waiting for appearance on the scheduled date or ensuring effective response to the adjournment request, the authority denied the appellant a meaningful opportunity of being heard.

Conclusion: The adjudication order was set aside and the matter was remanded for fresh adjudication after granting the appellant an opportunity of personal hearing.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded on the ground of procedural unfairness, resulting in setting aside of the impugned order and remand for de novo adjudication.

Ratio Decidendi: A request for adjournment must be considered objectively, and deciding an adjudication matter without ensuring an effective opportunity of personal hearing amounts to denial of natural justice and vitiates the order.

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