MUNICIPAL BOARD Vs. DWARKA PRASAD AGARWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a judgment of Mr. Justice Chowdhry, dated the 1st March, 1955, dismissing a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.

(2.) The Appellant is a paper merchant who carries on business in Jhansi. In the year 1948 the Municipal Board of Jhansi decided to impose an octroi on stationery brought into the municipality for used therein and also to alter the rate at which octroi was then livied on certain other goods brought within municipal limits, and on the 22nd December, 1948, the Board passed a special resolution embodying its preposals. These proposals were in due course sanctioned by the Commissioner of the Division who was the prescribed authority under the U. P. Municipalities Act, 1916. The proposals so sanctioned were published on the 24th September, 1949, in the form of a Notification which itself was dated the 12th September, 1949. This Notification referred to four classes of goods, namely Articles for food or drink, Articles for fuel, lighting and washing, Drugs and spices, and Piece goods etc. In the case of the first three classes the Notification was of an alteration in the rate at which octroi was levied on the articles enumerated under each heading; as regards the last class the Notification was of the imposition of octroi on articles, of stationery which had not previously been liable to this tax.

(3.) On the same day, the 24th September, 1949, the Municipal Board passed a further special resolution Under Section 134(2) of the Act directing the imposition of the octroi with effect from the 1st October, 1949. A copy of this resolution was then, Under Section 135(1) of the Act, sent to the Commissioner who appears to have taken no action on the matter until the 9th February, 1952, when he published the following Notification in the official Gazette: