9911796707
TMI Blog1971 (8) TMI 92X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent of India was pleased to declare his intention of including within the municipal limits of Sonepat in the Rohtak District, the area specified in the Schedule to the notification. The Schedule included the industrial area of Sonepat where the factory of the appellants was situated. Under section 5(2) of the Act the inhabitants of the area who objected to the proposed inclusion of the said area could submit their objection in writing within six weeks of the date of publication of the notification. The appellants filed objections in writing. On November 1, 1966, after the bifurcation of Punjab the State of Haryana came into existence. A notification dated August 11, 1967, was published in the Haryana Government Gazette. The Gazette notification was to the effect that the Governor of Haryana was pleased to include within the Municipality of Sonepat in the Rohtak District the areas mentioned in the notification. The industrial area within which the factory of the appellants was situated was thus included within the local limits of the Municipality of Sonepat. From August 18, 1967, the respondent-municipality purported to impose, levy and collect from the appellants octroi in re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... area for sale therein." The power to levy octroi is indisputable and was not challenged. The contention on behalf of the appellants was that the provisions contained in section 62 of the Act should have been followed. Section 62 consists of 12 sub-sections. Broadly stated, under section 62 of the Act a municipal committee passes a resolution proposing the imposition of any tax under section 61. When such a resolution has been passed the committee shall publish a notice defining the class of persons or description of property proposed to be taxed, the amount or rate of the tax to be imposed, and the system of assessment to be adopted. Any inhabitant objecting to the proposed tax may within thirty days from the publication of the notice submit his objection in writing to the committee. If the committee decided to amend its proposals it shall publish the amended proposal along with a notice indicating that they are in modification of those previously published for objection. Objections may within thirty days be received to the amended proposal and the committee shall then consider the objections. Counsel on behalf of the appellants contended that this procedure for inviting objectio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f tax falling under section 61(2) of the Act when the State Government on receipt of the proposal and objections along with the recommendation of the Deputy Commissioner sanctions the imposition of the tax the State Government under section 62(10) of the Act shall notify the imposition of the tax and shall in the notification specify a date not less than one month from the date of the notification, on which the tax shall come into force. Inasmuch as the provisions of section 5(4) of the Act render the order of the relevant authorities sanctioning proposal of municipality for levy of octroi applicable to the included area, there cannot be any question of following the procedure for inviting objections to the proposed tax contemplated in section 62. It may also be stated here that a contention was advanced on behalf of the appellants that the applicability of octroi to the included area would offend article 14 of the Constitution by reason of denial to the persons within the included area of right to object to the tax. The provisions contained in section 5 of the Act and, in particular, subsection (2) thereof, confer on inhabitants within the area proposed to be included the right ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1)(a) of the Act that " this Act and all notifications, rules, bye-laws, orders, directions and powers issued, made or conferred under the Act, shall cease to apply thereto." When the Act provided for notifications ceasing to apply in the case of exclusion of local areas, and in the immediately preceding section 5 refrained from using the word "notifications" becoming applicable in the case of inclusion of areas the legislative intent is unambiguous and crystal clear that notifications could not become applicable to an included area on the strength of section 5(4) of the Act. The word "notification" cannot be said to be synonymous with rules, bye-laws, orders, directions and powers for two reasons. First, the Act in the present case speaks of notifications for imposition of tax and used the word "notification" separately from the other words "rules, bye-laws, orders, directions and powers". In the case of exclusion of areas, the Act speaks of notification ceasing to apply to excluded areas whereas in 'the case of inclusion of areas the Act significantly, omits any notification being applicable to such area. Secondly, the General Clauses Act in section 21 speaks of power to issue ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rt did not decide that taxes would become automatically leviable. On the contrary, this court in the Bagalkot City Minicipality case, in interpreting the words "municipal District" occurring in a bye-law, did not extend the meaning of "municipal district" to include areas which were subsequent to the making of the bye-law added within the limits of the municipal district. The reason given by this court was that the expression "municipal district" in the bye-law referred to the "municipal district" as existing when the bye-law was framed. The words "municipal, district" in the bye-law were not construed to relate to extended areas. In the Bagalkot City Municipality case section 48 of the Municipal Act provided that a bye-law could be made only with the sanction of the Government. The further provisions of section 48 in the Bagalkot City Municipality case required publication of a proposed bye-law for the information of the persons likely to be affected thereby. The lack of publication of the bye-law to the Bagalkot Cement Company affected by the bye-law was held to be an additional reason for refusing to extend the meaning of the words "municipal district" to include extended areas. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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