The guidelines would have been provided for the assessment and adjudication proceedings issued by the state GST department of Tamil Nadu, it was furnished under the Tamil Nadu Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 along with the other legacy acts for the devotion to the principles of Natural Justice.
The circular furnished mentioned that “It has come to notice that, in many cases, the Assessment/ Adjudication orders are passed by the Proper Officer without properly following the principles of Natural Justice, in letter and spirit, which results in the challenging the proceedings by the assessees, by way of the filing writ petition before the Hon’ble High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. In such cases, the Hon’ble High Court has set aside the proceedings and directed to redo the assessment process de-novo.”
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Natural justice would be the core of any fair adjudication and it is essential for the Adjudication Procedure, directed by the department.
“The main purpose of following the principles of Natural Justice is to protect the rights of the assessee against any arbitrary assessment and thereby, ensure fair and equitable administration of justice.”
The provisions of the TNGST Act, 2017 including the provisions of TNVAT Act, 2006, furnishes for the issuance of notices and indeed furnishes the opportunity of being heard, prior to burdening the taxpayer with any liability. Section 75 of the TNGST Act, 2017, concerned with “General provisions relating to the determination of tax” gives the opportunity of being heard, in which the request obtained specified that no demand would be ensured on the basis excluding the basis mentioned in the notice and the order would set out the related facts and the grounds towards the decision.
“It is of utmost important to adhere to the principles of Natural Justice for the reason that “justice must not only be done it must also appear to be done as well”. The Adjudication / Assessment process should necessarily include the following, in order to comply with principles of Natural Justice,” the circular articulated.
