AHMEDABAD MUNICIPALITY Vs. KALYANBHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are three revision applications filed against the decisions of the Small Cause Court Judge, Ahmedabad, in three suits, Nos. 4006, 4005 and 4034 of 1941, The plaintiff in suits Nos. 4006 and 4005 was the same person, Kalyanbhai Haribhai, and the plaintiff in suit No. 4036 was his brother, Nanubhai Haribhai, AH the three suits were filed against the Ahmedabad Municipality for refund of certain amounts recovered by it from the plaintiffs as drainage tax for the years 1939-40 and 1940-41. The learned Judge passed decrees in favour of the plaintiffs in all the three suits, and against those decrees the Ahmedabad Municipality and the Administrator of the Municipality have applied in revision. The points involved in all the three suits were the same, and the judgment given in suit No. 4006 which is the subject of Revision Application No. 370 governs all the three suits.

(2.) THE plaintiffs jn the three suits were the owners of buildings within the municipal limits of Ahmedabad which consisted of several tenements. Each tenement was given a separate census number. Within the compounds of each of the three buildings, there is a general provision made for1 the disposal of the waste water |of each of the tenements, and there is also a water closet or urinal in each of the compounds. But each separate tenement is not actually connected with the municipal drainage system; nor is there a separate water closet or urinal attached to each tenement.

(3.) THERE are two exceptions which run as follows : (1) When a tenement is assessed on the annual letting value and is used as a shop, office, store-room or godown, it shall not be deemed to be connected with the drainage system so long as it is used as such shop, office, store-room or godown unless arrangements are made for the waste water to pass from it to the gully trap chamber. (2). When one premises or compound having a gully trap chamber at its entrance or at any other end of its limits contains several tenements owned by different persons, only those tenements which have an arrangement for the discharge of the waste water into that chamber shall be deemed to be connected with the drainage system. Then follow two other clauses which provide that (2) when there is a general provision made in one part of the premises for the disposal of waste water of the inmates of all the tenements in the premises; or (3) when a water closet or urinal on such buildings or land or any part thereof is connected with the municipal drainage system, the building or land and every tenement therein shall be deemed to have been connected with the municipal drainage system.