NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE Vs. LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA:OM PRAKASH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals, by a certificate of fitness granted by the Delhi High Court, arise out of a common judgment dated March 27, 1973 given by the High Court in writ pertitions filed by the respondents against the appellant, the New Delhi Municipal Committee. The facts of the two writ petitions being similar, we will only set out those of Civil Appeal No. 289 of 1974, which arises out of a writ petition filed in the High Court by the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

(2.) For convenience, we will refer to the appellant as the the Municipal Committee; and to the respondent as the L.I.C.. The L.I.C. is the owner of a building known as Jeevan Vihar Parliament Street, New Delhi. The Municipal Committee assessed the building to house-tax for the years 1963-64, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1966-67 and 1967-68 on the basis of actual rent received by the L.I.C. The L.I.C. paid the tax as assessed for these years but in February 1968 it received five notices from the municipal Committee stating, that in exercise of the powers conferred by Sec. 67 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 3 of 1911, it had decided by a resolution dated January 27, 1968 to amend the lists of assessment for the aforesaid five years by including therein the rent of a portion of the basement of the building which had escaped inclusion in the respective lists.

(3.) In June 1968, the L.I.C. filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court praying that the aforesaid resolutions of the Municipal Committee be quashed and that it be restrained from realising the additional tax which it proposed to levy under its resolution, on the ground that it had no jurisdiction under Sec. 67 of the Act to amend the assessment lists of previous years. In view of the importance of the question, the writ petition was referred for decision to a Full Bench of the High Court.