NAGAR PALIKA HARDOI Vs. JASWANT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RESPONDENT Jaswant Singh imported 103 quintals of iron pipe into the Mahapalika of Hardoi on 18-12-1979 and. did not pay octroi thereon on the basis that it was meant for agricultural purposes. If octroi was payable the amount would have been Rs. 618/-. On 15-1-80 the Municipal Board of Hardoi lodged a complaint under Section 154/155 of the U. P. Municipalities Act for the prosecution of respondent Jaswant Singh on the ground that he had made an evasion of the due octroi. The defence was that the pipe in question was used for tube wells.

(2.) THE trial court held that the pipe in question was used for agricultural purposes and, therefore, was exempt from octroi under Exemption Item no. 5 which otherwise would have been liable to octroi under Item no. 110 of the relevant Schedule. He, therefore, acquitted the respondent.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the appellant says that the statement of use for tube well is not necessarily a statement of use for agricultural purposes. There is no substance in this contention. In the first place, none of the parties proceeded on that basis in the trial court. In the second place, the common use of tube well is irrigation.