MOHRA BAI Vs. MUNICIPAL BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition seeks quashing of notification dated 2-8-1969 (Annexure '1' to the writ petition) issued by the Commissioner, Allahabad Division, Allahabad, imposing tax on the trade of dyeing and printing in the Municipal Board of Farrukhabad Fatehgarh in the purported exercise of powers under section 126 (1) (3) of the U. P. Municipalities Act. The petitioners are persons engaged in this trade. They are running factories for dyeing and printing. Sizes of the factories and the strength of the labour employed by them, however, differ. They have assailed the validity of the notification mentioned above on the ground that the same is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India inasmuch as the tax is in the first place uncertain and umabiguous and secondly it treates unequals equal which is forbidden by the Constitution of India. The contention is that sizes of the factories run by the petitioners as well as their potentialities and the number of workmen employed therein widely differs but the impugned notification imposes a fiat rate of tax being Rs. 100/- per annum per factory.

(2.) THE submission is fully supported by a decision of a learned Single Judge of this Court in Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 2891 of 1971, Shanti Swarup v. Municipal Board Farrukhabad-cum-Fatehgarh, rendered on 8-10- 1974. THE facts of that case are materially similar to those obtaining in the present case. In that case the petitioners who were running sawing machines, lathe and oil expellers, challenged the constitutionality of a notification issued by the State Government as well as the rules framed by the Municipal Board, Farrukhabad-cum-Fatehgarh, inter alia, on the ground that unilateral rate of tax had been imposed on the machines used without having regard to their sizes, horse-powers or capacity. Thus tax was payable on sawing machine at the rate of Rs. 100/- while on the lathe machine it was Rs. 50/- on each persons engaged in the trade or vocation of running those machines even though the capacity of the units widely differed. Relying on the decision of the Supreme Court reported in State of Kerala v. Haji K. Kutty, AIR 1969 SC 378, as well as on an earlier decision reported in New Manek Chow Spinning and Weaving Mills Co. Ltd. v. Municipal Corporation of City of Ahmedabad, AIR 1967 SC 1801, the learned Single Judge observed as under :-

(3.) IN the result, the petition succeeds and is allowed. The impugned notification dated 9-8-1968, a true copy whereof is Annexure '1' to the writ petition in so far as imposition of tax of Rs. 100/- per factory per annum on the trade of printing and dyeing is concerned, is quashed. The respondent Municipal Board shall not levy or realise the tax in question from the petitioners under the aforesaid notification. However, there will be no order as to costs.