PALITANA NAGARPALIKA Vs. ARISA BHUWAN JAIN DHARAMSHALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This bunch of second appeals arises from the following civil appeals decided by the learned Assistant Judge of Bhavnagar which appeals in the Bhavnagar District Court in their turn had arisen respectively from the civil suits decided by the learned Civil Judge (J. D.) Palitana as mentioned below : S. A. No. District Court appeal Civil Suit. 259 142 78 260 158 78 261 143 91 262 160 91 263 144 92 264 161 92 265 145 93 266 159 93

(2.) All these appeals however are being disposed of by this common in judgment firstly because the questions of law involved are common and secondly because the learned counsels appearing for the contending parties are agreeable on this common treatment.

(3.) The appellant in all these appeals is the Palitnana Nagarpalika a municipality deemed to be constituted under the Gujarat Municipalities Act 1963 hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Act 1963 for brevitys sake. This municipality is the original defendant in all the above suits whereas there are different plaintiffs in all those suits. All these plaintiffs are the trustees or managers of different Dharmashalas or Sarais situated in the holy place of Palitnana which is the famous place of pilgrimage for persons following Jainism. All these sarais are put up by philanthropic people with a view to provide shelter to the visiting pilgrims and these properties are registered as Public Trust properties under the provisions of the Bombay Public Trust Act. The municipality which is the appellant in all these appeals had first made attempts to levy the house tax on all these sarais managed by these trustees and other building3 situated within the municipal limits of Palitana. That attempt was made by framing some rules that were brought into effect from 1-7-57 but no taxes were actually levied. The said municipality however carne to be superseded by the Government and an administrator was appointed to run the municipal affairs. This administration went on from 16-12-60 till 25-9-67. During the period all the powers functions and duties of the municipality rested with the Administrator. The Administrator had passed a resolution on 4-3-64 ex. 78 under the provisions of sec. 60A of the Bombay District Municipal Act 1901 which was then applied to the Saurashtra region with necessary modifications. The procedure undergone by the Administrator is set out by the learned appellate Judge in paragraph 14 of his judgment and X do not propose to burden this judgment by reiterating those various stages undertaken by the Administrator. In short the Administrator had passed the resolution to make rules and levy house tax invited the objections considered them and then had approved the rules and submitted the same to the competent authority for their sanction. Ex. 83 are those rules as sanctioned by the Government with certain modifications. Then the Administrator passed the resolution Ex. 84 on 18-12-64 to apply those Rules to the Municipal limits with effect from 1-4-65. He also resolved under sec. 62 of the District Municipal Act that these Rules should be published along with details of the sanction as required under the said sec. 62.