MALIRAM GAURIDUTT MITTAL Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution take exception to the respondents purporting to re-fix the rent of the plots figuring in the petitions and threatening to recover the same along with interest-ordinary and penal, as with effect from the early 1970s.

(2.) THE plots of land figuring in these petitions are part of block No. 3, Backbay Reclamation, Bombay. In the year 1971, the State Government proposed to lease out plots in Block No. 3 to the different petitioners in these petitions-a vital term of the proposal being that the lands which were then submerged would have to be reclaimed by the intending lessees and that they would have to pay ground rent at a particular rate per metre. This proposal was accepted by the lessees who started the reclamation process. The ground rent was fixed at 6 ? % of the value of the land taken at Rs. 4,050/- per sq. metre. Other terms of the proposed lease were set out in a Government Resolution dated 1st March, 1972. This resolution specified the names of the lessees and the particulars of the lands allotted to them. Clause 2 of the Resolution spoke of the same having the concurrence of the Government in the Finance Department. In the year, 1977, a formal agreement for lease was executed for and on behalf of the State in favour of the lessees. The lessees in their turn put up structures on the plots and sold them to different occupants. Misc. Petition No. 519 of 1974 came to be filed in this Court by certain members of the public who claimed that valuable lands had been let out to private persons at throw-away rents, and, for reasons not entirely complimentary to those in the saddle at that time. A much revered Judge of this Court Mr. Justice Gandhi sustained the contention raised in the said petition and gave directions for the rent being enhanced substantially. Petitioners lessees figuring in the instant petitions were not parties to the said petition. However, certain observations were made in regard to leases of plots forming part of Block No. 3 by Mr. Justice Gandhi. That gave rise to an exercise on the part of the Government which led to the issue of a memorandum on 5th June, 1984. The memorandum recited the Governments view that it had become necessary to ascertain the market price of the land on the date the decision to lease the plots had been taken. This matter had been commented upon by the Public Accounts Committee while examining the report of the Auditor and Comptroller General for the year 1974-75. Government had obtained a valuation report from the Director of Town Planning and on the basis thereof it was deemed necessary to fix the rent on the basis that the market value of the property at the time of the intent to lease was not Rs. 4050/- per sq. metre, but Rs. 5,000/- per sq. metre. For that reason, the plot holders had to pay rent at the above rate as from the date of commencement of the obligation to pay rent. They had paid rent at the rate initially fixed and the balance had to be paid by them along with the interest simple and penal-within a stipulated time. Initially the memorandum was not given to the lessees who were given a mere notice in the year 1986 to pay a certain sum representing the difference upto date and rent at that enhanced rate as from 1st January 1986. The lessees took exception to the notice issued to them and called for various particulars. The particulars were supplied, but after a great deal of time and not fully. That gave rise to the petitions aforementioned.

(3.) THE return filed on behalf of the respondents is to effect that the plots figuring in these petitions are comparable to those which figured in the petition before Mr. Justice Gandhi. For that reason it had become necessary to re-ascertain the market value of the petition plots of land. The Director to Town Planning had been entrusted with the task of so doing and it was on the basis of a report submitted by him that the rent had been fixed at 6 ? % based on the market value of the land being Rs. 5,000/- per sq. metre. What had been done was sought to be justified as being in consonance with the rules framed under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966.