PRITHVI COTTON MILLS LIMITED Vs. BROACH BOROUGH MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These matters arise under Article 226 of the Constitution and are appeals by certificate granted by the High Court of Gujarat against its judgment and order, September 10, 1966. The appellant No.1 is a Company which has spinning and weaving mills at Broach and manufactures and sells cotton yarn and cloth. Respondent No.1 is the Broach Borough Municipality constituted under Section 8 of the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925. In the assessments years 1961-62, 1962-63 and 1963-64 the Municipality purporting to act under S.73 of the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925 and the Rules made thereunder imposed a purported rate on lands and buildings belonging to the respondent at a certain percentage of the capital value. Section 73 of the Act allows the Municipality to levy "a rate on buildings or lands or both situate within the municipal borough". The Rules under the Act applied the rates on the basis of the percentage on the capital value of lands and buildings. The assessment lists were published and tax was imposed according to the rates calculated on the basis of the capital value of the property of the appellant and bills in respect of the tax were served. The writ petitions were filed to question the assessment and to get the assessment cancelled.

(2.) During the pendency of the writ petitions the legislature of Gujarat passed the Gujarat Imposition of Taxes by Municipalities (Validation) Act, 1963. As a result the writ petitions were amended and the Validation Act was also questioned. The appellants also filed a second writ petition questioning the validity of the Validation Act under Articles 19 (1) (f), (g) and 265 of the Constitution. By the order under appeal here both the writ petitions were dismissed although a certificate of fitness was granted.

(3.) The Validation Act was presumably passed because of the decision of this Court reported in Patel Gordhandas Hargovindas vs. Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad, (1964) 2 SCR 608 . In that case the validity of the Rules framed by the Municipal Corporation under Section 73 were called in question, particularly Rule 350A for rating open lands which provides that the rate on the area of open lands shall be levied at 1 per centum on the valuation based upon capital value. Dealing with the word 'rate' as used in these statutes, it was held by this Court that the word 'rate' had acquired a special meaning in English legislative history and practice and also in Indian legislation and it meant a tax for local purposes imposed by local authorities. The basis of such tax was the annual value of the lands or buildings. It was discussed in the case that there were three methods by which the rates could be imposed:the first was to take into account the actual rent fetched by the land or building where it was actually let; the second was, where it was not let, to take rent based on hypothetical tenancy, particularly in the case of buildings; and the third was where neither of these two modes was available, by valuation based on capital value from which annual value had to be found by applying suitable percentage which might not be the same for lands and buildings. It was held that in Section 73 the word 'rate' as used must have been used in the special sense in which the word was understood in the legislative practice of India before that date. Rule 350A which laid the rate on land at a percentage of the valuation based upon capital was therefore declared ultra vires the Act itself. In short, the word 'rate' was given a specialised meaning and was held to mean a kind of impose on the annual letting value of property, if actually let out, and on a notional letting value if the property was not let out. The legislature of Gujarat then passed the Validation Act seeking to validate the imposition of the tax as well as to avoid any future interpretation of the Act on the lines on which Rule 350A was construed. The Act came into force on January 29, 1964. After defining the expressions used in the Act and providing for its application, the Act enacted Section 3 which concerned validation of impositions and collections of taxes or rates by Municipalities in certain cases. That section reads as follows: