PRADEEP CHANDRA JAIN Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) House no.592 Chandaushi Mughalsarai, District Chandauli belongs to the petitioner. The dispute relates with regard to the house tax of the aforesaid property for the financial year 2008-2009. Earlier, the house in dispute was governed by Zila Panchayat Adhiniyam but presently is governed by the U.P. Municipalities Act.

(2.) The petitioner alleges that on 23.12.1985 the said house was wrongly and illegally assessed at Rs.60,000/- by Nagar Palika, Mughalsarai demanding the house tax w.e.f. 1st of October, 1987. Challenging the said assessment, the petitioner invoked the jurisdiction of the Civil Court by filing original suit no.487 of 1992 : Pradeep Chandra Jain Vs. Nagar Palika Mughalsarai and others claiming a decree for declaration and permanent injunction restraining the defendants from realizing house tax amounting to Rs.14,500/- through recovery citation dated 22nd of September, 1992. The said suit was decreed exparte by the judgment and decree dated 1st of December, 1995 by the IV the Additional Civil Judge, Varanasi. A copy thereof has been filed as Annexure No.1 to the writ petition. The further averment is that since then the petitioner made efforts number of times to deposit the house tax but the same was not accepted by Nagar Palika Mughalsarai, Chandauli. Hence the present writ petition has been filed for the following reliefs:-

(3.) In the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the respondent no.2, the stand taken therein is that the judgment of the Civil Court is in respect of assessment of the house tax for specified period and it has no relevancy for the subsequent period. Since then, drastic changes have been made and house tax has been enhanced from time to time by the Municipal Board. The petitioner has not filed any objection to the proposed enhancement of the house tax and is duty bound to pay the house tax and has no right to seek benefit of the judgment of Civil Court for a period other than covered in the suit.