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1989 (5) TMI 108

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..... n, stated that Amrit Narain, In re [C.W. No. 1077 of 1988] the Hon'ble Delhi High Court has passed the following order : "By this petition the petitioner prays for quashing the order dated9th November, 1987passed by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. It appears that this order was passed without giving an opportunity of hearing to the petitioner. The order is thus violative of principles of natural justice. In our view the order is liable to be quashed. We accordingly quash the order and direct the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal to decide the application made by the petitioner afresh after giving him an opportunity of being heard. There is no order as to costs." 3. The question, therefore, before us is whether the order passed by us deciding the miscellaneous application of the assessee under sec. 254(2) of the Act without giving it an opportunity of personal hearing is non est in law. According to the assessee, this Tribunal has violated the principles of natural justice in not giving an opportunity of hearing to the assessee. The question, therefore, is what the principles of natural justice require in the particular case before us and whether the Tribunal has violated any s .....

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..... e is no rule of natural justice that at every stage a person is entitled to a personal hearing. In that case, an appeal was preferred to the Central Board of Revenue against the order of the Customs Authorities and the appeal being barred by time, was dismissed in limine without hearing the appellant. The appellant had contended before Hon'ble the Supreme Court that the order was invalid because he was not given an opportunity of being heard before rejecting the appeal as barred by time. It was in these circumstances that Hon'ble the Supreme Court observed that there was no rule of natural justice that entitled a person to personal hearing at every stage of the proceedings. 7. InI.Venugopala Reddi v. Amora Venkata Narasimhulu AIR 1962 AP 863 the Hon'ble Andhra Pradesh High Court held that rules of natural justice had to be inferred from the natural of the Tribunal, the scope of its enquiry and the statutory rules of procedure laid down by the law for carrying out the objectives of the statute. The Hon'ble High Court has cited the following passage from the speech of Lord Shaw, R. v. Local Government Board 1915 AC 120 at page 138 : "The words 'natural justice' occur in arguments .....

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..... justice for a Tribunal to receive and rely upon written representations. Nor is it necessarily a denial of due process. Provided a party is given a fair and adequate opportunity to present his case, it should be within the discretion of a Tribunal whether it proceeds by way of an oral or written hearing . . . . As suggested above, written representations can be used either as an alternative to an oral hearing or as an adjunct to such procedures". Thus, an opportunity of hearing can be given to a party either by hearing him orally or by considering his written submissions. This has also been so held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Ramjee, in which it was held that when the written representation of the shot firer had been considered by the Board, it could not be said that he had not been heard. 11. Having stated the law on the subject of natural justice, let us now look to the provisions of the Income-tax Act. The application moved by the assessee was under sec. 254(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which provides that the Tribunal may with a view to rectifying any mistake apparent from the record, amend any order and shall make such amendment if the mistake is brought t .....

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..... re, the need for an advocate to present oral arguments to show that there is such an obvious and apparent mistake in the Tribunal's order ? 12. It is settled law that it is open to the Legislature to provide that rules of natural justice should not be observed in certain cases Ramjibhai Ukabhai Parmar v. Manilal Purshottam Solanki AIR 1960 Guj. 19. This is also clear from the various judgments of Hon'ble the Supreme Court, in which it has been held that what should be the form of natural justice shall depend upon the facts of each case and the relevant statutory provisions. In the case before us there is no provision in section 254(2) for affording a personal hearing in cases where no order prejudicial to the assessee is proposed. Therefore, an opportunity of personal hearing is by necessary implication excluded by the Legislature. It has to be remembered that a petition like the one under sec. 254(2) is materially different from an appeal. In an appeal the grounds of appeal have to be set forth concisely without any argument or narrative (See Rule 8 of the Appellate Tribunal's Rules). Therefore, while hearing an appeal the concise grounds have to be elaborated and that is why a .....

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