TMI Blog1958 (7) TMI 49X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... owers of the Municipality. 2. The appellant owns Ac. 3-94 cents of land within the municipal limits of Vijayawada. For the years 1947-48, 1948-49, and 1949-50 the Municipality levied property tax on these lands at the rate of Rs. 86/- per annum, proceeding under Section 81(2) of the District Municipalities Act, while the tax previously paid was Rs. 4/- per year. The appellant, disputing the right of the Municipality to make the levy under Section 81(2), refused to comply with the demand to pay the enhanced tax. 3. This led the Municipality to raise a suit for recovery of the tax of Rs. 258-3-0 for the three years mentioned above. The suit was resisted on the grounds already indicated above. The district Munsif decided that as the subj ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ecific provisions of law. Therefore, it is only where there is no other special provision in respect to any other type of land this sub-section is attracted. Since the Legislature has enacted a specific provision in regard to agricultural lands, it is reasonable to infer that that category of lands contemplated by that sub-section should be governed by it. 7. There is also another cardinal rule of interpretation of statutes, viz., when there is a general provision and a specific provision in regard to a subject, the general provision should yield to the specific provision and it is the latter that prevails. Undoubtedly Sub-section (2) contains a rule for the computation of taxes in regard to lands or buildings or both, that is to say, la ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... learned Judges thought that the pronouncement of the Privy Council indicated that the municipality had a choice in regard to the levy of taxes on agricultural lands under either of the two provisions mentioned above. They were, under the impression that the ruling in MANU/PR/0060/1944 supported the opinion that the municipality had choice to resort either to Section 81(2) or 81(4). 9. We feel that the pronouncement of the Privy Council has not got that effect. In that case certain vacant lands belonging to the Madras and Southern Maharatta Railway Company, Limited, within the Municipality of Bezwada, were assessed under Section 82(2) of the Act. Undoubtedly the lands were subject to property tax which the municipality was empowered to l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e to the appellants. The observations in the judgment which gave rise to the theory that option was left to the Municipality to select either the mode envisaged in Section 81(2) or the one in Section 81 (4) may be conveniently extracted here. It will be observed that under Section 81(2) the property tax, save as otherwise provided in the Act, is to be levied at a percentage of 'the annual value of lands or building or both'. Sub-section (3) otherwise provides inasmuch as it permits, but does not enjoin, the levying of the tax 'in the case of lands which are not used exclusively for agricultural purposes and are not occupied by or adjacent and appurtenant to buildings' either at a percentage of the capital value of su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of such lands or at such rates with reference to the extent of such lands, as it may fix. 11. Subsequently the word 'shall' was substituted for the word 'may'. It is only having regard to the employment of the word 'may' that their Lordships observed that it was permissible for the municipality to levy the tax and it was not enjoined upon to levy the tax. In other words, it was not obligatory for the municipality or no duty was cast upon it, to levy an assessment in regard to those lands. It was permissible to make an assessment in regard to such lands. That is the only idea that is conveyed by the relevant language in the passage in the judgment of their Lordships. In our opinion that does not communicate th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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