Failure to establish service of hearing notices before ex parte...

Failure to establish service of hearing notices before ex parte appellate adjudication amounted to a violation of natural justice. The Court accepted that the assessee had been deprived of an effective opportunity of hearing because the record did not clearly show service of the relevant intimations, and some documents were not traceable. On that procedural defect alone, without examining the tax dispute on merits, the impugned appellate order was set aside and the appeal was restored for fresh adjudication after granting due opportunity of hearing.