SIR BYRAMJEE JEEJEEBHOY KT Vs. PROVINCE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) JOHN Beaumont, Kt. , C. J. 1. The plaintiff in this suit is the owner of certain immoveable properties in the City of Bombay, and he seeks a declaration that Part VI of the Bombay Finance Act of 1932, incorporated therein by the Bombay Finance (Amendment) Act, 1939, is ultra vires of the Bombay Provincial Legislature, and a declaration that the urban immoveable property tax purporting to be levied by Section 22, forming part of the said Part VI of the Bombay Finance Act, 1932, is illegal and invalid. He also asks for further declarations that the notices served on the plaintiff by the Bombay Municipality under Section 202 of the City of Bombay Municipal Act under powers purporting to be conferred by the impugned Act are invalid so far as they relate to the urban immoveable property tax, and other consequential relief.

(2.) THE first point taken by Government is that this Court has no jurisdiction to hear the suit by reason of Section 226 of the Government of India Act, 1935, P which provides that no High Court shall have any original jurisdiction in any matter concerning the revenue. Why a High Court should be debarred from exercising jurisdiction which a Subordinate Judge could exercise, I do not know ; but we have to take the Act as we find it. Before the Section can apply, however, we must determine that the tax which is challenged is legal ; if it is not, its imposition does not concern revenue, but is a nullity. To refuse jurisdiction to try this question would involve dismissing the case against the plaintiff without hearing him. This point was not seriously contested by the Advocate General.

(3.) BY the City of Bombay Municipal Act, 1888, it is provided in Section 139 that property taxes may be imposed for the purposes of the Act. Section 140 provides that the property taxes shall consist of a water-tax, a halalkhor-tax and a general tax which latter tax is to be of not less than eight and not more than seventeen per cent, of the rateable value of buildings and lands in the city. Section 154 provides- In order to fix the rateable value of any building or land assessable to a property-tax, there shall be deducted from the amount of the annual rent for which such land or building might reasonably be expected to let from year to year a sum equal to ten per centum of the said annual rente, and the said1 deduction shall be in lieu of all allowance for repairs or on any other account whatever.