CHACKRAVARTHY HOSTEL Vs. MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question that falls for examination and consequent decision in this petition is to whether the petitioners would be entitled to the property tax exemption as contemplated in S.101(1)(cc) of the Kerala Municipalities Act, 1960. The said provision requires reproduction for the purposes of this petition. As is relevant it enacts that the following buildings and lands shall be exempt from the property tax if they are buildings used for educational purposes, including hostels, public buildings and places used for the charitable purpose of sheltering the destitute or animals and libraries and play grounds which are open to the public. At the first blush it would be apparent that the expression is of an inclusive nature. What is required the user of the building for educational purposes and other instances obviously enacted on the basis of inclusive nature would have to be considered as illustrative in character, the dominant aspect would be the user of the premises in question for educational purposes. It is also necessary to emphasise that this provision (cc) was not in the text of the section on the date of the enactment but has been added subsequent thereto by Act 29 of 1963. Even then reading the other clauses of the Section as originally framed the emphasis is on the user of the premises, the occupation of the premises, the facet of setting apart of the premises as the real question going for the determination of the ultimate benevolent situation of the premises being exempted from property tax. An attempt to trace the inbuilt help would not be a futility. Clause (a) speaks of a place set apart for public worship and considers it irrelevant as to whether it is actually so used or the requirement of its user for no other purpose, laying emphasis on the place being set apart for public worship. Similarly the user of the place has public worship is also carried forward to the place attached thereto, separating those used for residential purposes with reference to the places attached to the public worship. The emphasise in clause (b) also as specified gives importance to the situation of legitimate annexation to the places of worship. The language of clause (c) would also be found not to be really different relating to the choultries to be understood in terms of its character of occupation to be understood when no rent is charged and the charging of rent with regard to the exclusive use thereof for charitable purposes. Subsequent clause (d) also emphasise the character of occupation and user of the places for public worship either by a society or by a body for a charitable purpose. This inbuilt material provides the main factor that goes a long way in appreciating the claim for exemption of the property tax in the context. It will have to be appreciated that the use of the place, setting apart of the place in question has to be understood in terms of the purpose which is to be ascertained on the basis of the material provided by the factual matrix.

(2.) The user of the premises for educational purposes has also to be appreciated on the basis of a very wide spectrum. The proper understanding of what is an educational purpose may not be really necessary for the purposes of this petition. However all that is included in going to make up a better man from the context in question is accepted as an educational process. The genesis of understanding in the context would convey to us that education would have to be understood as everything that is required as a tool in the art of man making. In the process taking into consideration of the media available as tools of education would have to be understood as necessary modes of understanding as to what the educational purposes would mean. The progress in the field of understanding as to what is meant by education has also undergone a rapid change and a fast development.

(3.) In the olden days education was understood to be what would make available to a person a better standard of life. Education was understood to be a means of taking a person into a better society. This was what was understood as an immediate object of taking education through the University. Thereafter education was understood as a means of development of the faculties of the personality of the individuals. It was thereafter that education was understood as a situation which would make a better man of tomorrow. This State has seen a greater thinker in Sree Narayana Guru who accepts anything that would make a better man as education and the necessary religion not having any attachment to a particular sect or particular religious dogmas. The process of understanding the legislative provision giving certain advantages of tax exemption to those who are engaged in the educational process would have to be approached on the basis of what we understand by education. In the days of facilities of distant education it would be an exercise in futility to restrict the understanding of the provision with regard to as to whether the place is attached to a College or as to whether the place is attached to the hostel itself or the place is attached in any other mode of attachment The situation will have to be understood not also on the basis of what was thought about it with regard to the user as would be available from the documents on record. The situation will have to be appreciated on the basis of the material that is placed on record with regard to the user of the premises.