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TMI Blog1972 (9) TMI 160X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ghts under Article 14 of the Constitution and for restraining the appellants from levying house tax on the mills, factories and buildings connected therewith of the respondents or collecting the same from them. A Division Bench of the High Court held that Sections 3(b), 4(1), 4(2) and 5 of the Validating Act were invalid as they contravened Article 14 and granted the prayer for restraining the appellant-Municipality from levying and collecting the tax. 2. These appeals, by certificate, are directed against the judgment of the Division Bench. 3. Till the year 1947, the appellant-Municipality used to levy house tax on the mills, factories and buildings connected therewith of the respondents in these appeals on the basis of their annual lett ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... isposed of by this Court in Lokamanya Mills, Barsi Ltd. v. Barsi Borough Municipality [1962]1SCR306 . This Court, after referring to the provisions of Section 78 and the explanation to Section 75 of the Boroughs Act, held that the Municipality could levy a rate on lands and buildings on the basis of their capital or annual letting value and that in framing Rule 2(c), the Municipality had adopted & mode of valuation different from the one sanctioned by the Boroughs Act. The Court also observed : The vice of the rule lies in an assumed uniformity of return per square foot which structures of different classes which are in their nature not similar, may reasonably fetch if let out to tenants and in the virtual deprivation to the rate-payer of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... collection of tax notwithstanding the decision of this Court. Sub-section (1) and (2) of Section 4 provide : 4(1) Any house tax, and any water tax levied or purported to be levied and collected in respect of any mills, factories and buildings and lands connected therewith or in respect of any vacant lands, under the Boroughs Act and rules made thereunder, at any time before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to have been levied and collected by or under the Boroughs Act as amended by this Act; and accordingly notwithstanding anything in any judgment, decree or order of any Court any such house tax or water tax levied and collected shall, for all purposes be deemed to be, and always to have been, validity levied and collected, a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Lokamanya Mills, Barsi Ltd. v. Barsi Borough Municipality [1962]1SCR306 on the basis that the Boroughs Act authorized levy of house tax only on the basis of annual letting value or capital value of the land or building as the case may be, and that Rule 2(c) as it purported to levy house tax on the basis of the floor area was ultra vires the Act. 9. When the rule was struck down by this Court, the effect was, that the rule could never be deemed to have been passed. Apart from Rule 2(c), there was no charging provision similar to Rule 2(c) either in the Boroughs Act, or in the Validating Act for levying house tax on mills, factories and buildings connected therewith. After Rule 2(c) was struck down, the Municipality did not frame any rule un ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted might be validated. Even if Section 4 had resurrected Rule 2(c) and said that it shall be deemed to have been passed under the Validating Act with retrospective effect, that might not have cured invalidity on account of its being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as it imposed a flat rate on the floor area without making any classification of the area on the basis of income, productivity, or age of building, etc. But we do not think it necessary to pass upon this hypothetical question as Section 4 did not revive or resurrect Rule 2(c), much less, give it retrospective operation. 11. In this view, we have no occasion to reach the Constitutional question as regards the validity of the impugned sections of the Validating Act and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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