K GOVINDARAJAN Vs. MADURAI CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff is the appellant in this second appeal and the appeal has been filed against the concurrent findings of both the Courts below to the effect that the enhancement of tax fixed by the Madurai Municipal Corporation who is the respondent herein from the second half year 1970-71 is correct and is not ultra vires and illegal.

(2.) The plaintiff filed the suit for declaration and consequential injunction alleging that the respondent had indiscriminately enhanced the property tax from Rs. 272.12 to Rs. 507.52 per half year from the second half year 1970-71 and then to Rs, 583.16 from the second half year 1971-72 and to Rs. 696.76 from 1972 without any proper basis overlooking the protest made by the appellant and that the defendant had not adopted the principle of the method of fixing the annual rental value prescribed by the Tamil Nadu Rent Control Act. The respondent resisted the suit on the contention that the suit is barred under section 495 of the Corporation Act and that the assessment has been made after compliance with the provisions of the said Act.

(3.) Both the Courts below have, relying upon the decision reported in The Guntur Municipal Council v. The Guntur Town Rate Payers Association1, held that the provisions relating to the fixation of fair rent under Tamil Nadu Act XVIII of 1960 have been struck down by the Supreme Court as ultra vires, that there is no provision in the Rent Control Act to fix the fair rent and that, therefore, the annual valuation fixed by the respondent herein cannot he said to be indiscrimiate and baseless and the civil Court has no jurisdiction to go into that question under section 495 of the Corporation Act.