MANILAL MANEKJI PRIVATE LTD Vs. MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE MALKAPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this petition is challenged a notice demanding the bales and bojas tax by the Municipal Committee, Malkapur, from the petitioner Manilal Manekji (Private) Limited of Malkapur. The impugned notice demands the taxes as follows :

(2.) ). NO doubt, in the petition itself various other demands of the opponent Committee against the petitioner have been referred to and their amounts mentioned and some grounds also raised; but in the arguments before us Mr. Mandlekar on behalf of the petitioner has confined himself to the demand of the tax by the notice of demand dated 12-12-1960 at annexure A. In their return the Committee have admitted that in regard to the years in question for which, the notice of demand at annexure A was served, they have already recovered certain amounts of the bales and bojas tax from the petitioner. That admission is to be found in paragraph 7 of the return as follows :

(3.) NOW, the challenge to the notice of demand and the attempted recovery on behalf of the opponent Committee is, in brief as follows : In regard to the bales and bojas tax there were two notifications issued by the Committee. The first notification is dated 21-3-1912 and runs as follows : "no. 243 : with reference to Section 44, Sub- sections (7) and (8) of the Berar Municipal Law, 1886, it is hereby notified that the Municipal Committee of Malkapur, in the Buldana District, has, with the sanction of the Chief Commissioner, directed the imposition, with effect from the 1st August 1912, of a tax on the ginning and pressing of cotton under Section 41 (1) (A) (b) of the said Law, to be within the limits of the Malkapur Municipality, levied from all persons carrying on, within the limits of the Malkapur Municipality, the trade of ginning cotton or pressing the same into bales by means of steam or mechanical process, at the following rates : 1. For each Boja of ten maunds ginned 8 pies. 2. For each bale of 14 maunds pressed 10 pies. The tax is payable in one instalment on the 1st August each year. " the second notification is dated 2-1-1940 and is as follows : "no. 11-3924-M-XIII. In exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-section (5) of Section 67 of the Central Provinces Municipalities Act, 1922 (C. P. Act II of 1922), as applied to Berar, the Governor of the Central Provinces and Berar is pleased to confirm the following schedule of rates made by the Municipal Committee, Malkapur in the Buldana District, under Clause (b) of Sub-section (i) of Section 66 of the said Act, for the imposition of the tax on persons carrying on the trade or ginning and pressing cotton by means of steam or mechanical process within its limits, in supersession of the one sanctioned under Central Provinces Gazette Notification No. 243, dated 21st March 1912. The revised schedule shall come into force from 1st October 1939. SCHEDULE 1. For each boja of 14 maunds or 392 Ibs. ginned 2 annas. 2. For each bale of 14 maunds or 392 Ibs. pressed 4 annas. " it will be noticed that the first notification was published under the then existing Berar Municipal Law, 1886, and the second notification under the provisions of the Central Provinces Municipalities Act, 1922, as applied to Berar. The Berar Municipal Law, 1886, under which the first notification was issued was repealed by Section 2 (1) of the C. P. Municipalities Act, 1922, as applied to Berar. But by Section 2 (2) thereof the notifications issued under the enactment so repealed were deemed to have been issued under the Central Provinces Municipalities Act and were therefore continued in operation.