MUNICIPAL BOARD OF BAREILLY Vs. KUNDAN LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference under Section 113 of the Code of Civil Procedure made by the Judge of the Court of Small Causes, Bareilly.

(2.) Sri Kundan Lal, who resides in the Civil Lines, Bareilly, was assessed to tax in the sum of Rs. 300 by the Municipal Board of Bareilly on two houses owned by him and situated in Ward No. 2, Bareilly. Demand was made for payment of this amount but Sri Kundan Lal refused to pay and a suit was filed against him in the Court of the Judge of Small Causes by the Municipal Board for the recovery of the tax.

(3.) The tax had been imposed a number of years earlier by the Municipal Board in exercise of its powers under Section 128(1) of the U. P. Municipalities Act, 1916, which provides that "128(1) Subject to any general rules or special orders of the State Government in this behalf, the taxes which a board may impose in the whole or any part of a municipality are (i) a tax on the annual value of buildings or lands or of both (ii) a tax on trades and callings carried on within the municipal limits and deriving special advantages from, or imposing special burdens on, municipal services; (iii) a tax on trades, callings and vocations including all employments remunerated by salary or fees; (iv) a tax on vehicles and other conveyances plying for hire or kept within the municipality or on boats moored therein; (v) a tax on dogs kept within the municipality; (vi) a tax on animals used for riding, driving draught or burden, when kept within the municipality; (vii) a toll on vehicles and other conveyances, animals, and laden coolies entering the municipality, (viii) an octroi on goods or animal brought within the municipality for consumption or use there in; (ix) a tax on inhabitants assessed according to their circumstances and property; (x) a water tax on the annual value of buildings or lands or of both; (xi) a scavenging tax; (xii) a tax for the cleansing of latrines and privies; (xiii) a tax on goods imported into, or exported from, any municipality in which an_ octroi was in force on the sixth of July 1917 or with the previous sanction of the Central Government any other Municipality; (xiv) any other tax which the State Legislature has power to impose in the State, under the Constitution." It is not in dispute that the tax in question is imposed only on buildings or lands in Ward No. 2 of the Bareilly Municipality, and it was Sri Kundan Lal's contention that upon the coming into force of the Constitution the tax had become illegal. In the written statement which he filed in the suit he contended that it was no longer legal for the Municipal Board to recover tax on the annual value of buildings and lands (commonly called 'house tax') from the owners of houses in one Ward alone without providing for special amenities to the residents of that Ward, but at the hearing before the learned judge Sri Kundan Lal was allowed to raise the wider question whether the power conferred upon a municipal board by Section 128 (1) of the Act to Impose taxes "in.....any part of a municipality" was valid, the contention being that this provision conferred upon the board a wholly unfettered, and arbitrary right to impose a tax on any group of residents within municipal limits that it might choose. The learned Judge was of opinion that for the purposes of the suit it was necessary for him to decide the question of the validity of Section 128(1) of the Act, and in his opinion that sub-section, to the extent that it enabled the municipal board to impose a tax in a part of a municipality, was invalid as contravening Article 14 of the Constitution. He was further of opinion that no house-tax could accordingly be recovered from Sri Kundan Lal. It is in these circumstances that the learned judge has referred to this Court the following question: "Whether Section 128 of the Municipalities Act is void in so far as it authorises a Municipal Board to impose certain taxes mentioned in it on any part of the municipality and whether the house-tax imposed on the plaintiff, who is resident in the Civil station Bareilly, in pursuance of the power given by Section 128 of the Municipalities Act is invalid and ultra vires of the Municipal Board, Bareilly, due to Article 14 of the Constitution of India?"