Non-speaking adjudication order set aside where material defence and supporting records were not properly considered.

A penalty order was set aside and remanded for fresh adjudication because the authority failed to properly consider the defence and supporting records. The appellant claimed the goods were received under purchase invoices, and that any discrepancy was only in the supplier's invoice address, while the transaction was reflected in the statutory registers. As the impugned order did not adequately address this material defence or scrutinise the relevant records, it was treated as a non-speaking order. The matter was therefore sent back to the original authority for de novo consideration.

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Issues: Whether the penalty order was liable to be set aside and the matter remanded for fresh adjudication on the ground that the defence and supporting records were not properly considered, rendering the order a non-speaking order.

Analysis: The dispute centred on an allegation that invoices and records were improperly maintained and that credit-related provisions had been contravened. The appellant asserted that the goods were received under purchase invoices and that any error was only in the address shown in the supplier's invoices, while the relevant transaction records stood reflected in the statutory registers. The impugned order did not deal with this defence in detail and did not adequately scrutinise the records relied upon by the appellant. An adjudication order that fails to consider the material defence and relevant records cannot be treated as a reasoned order.

Conclusion: The impugned order was rightly set aside and the matter was remanded for de novo consideration by the original authority.

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