CANTORANENT BOARD SECUNDERABAD Vs. G VENKAT RAM REDDY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ appeal of the year 1977 has been posted before us in compliance with the order of remand made by the Supreme Court of India in Civil Appeal No.774 of 1986 "remitting back to the Division Bench to restore the appeal to its original number and decide the same in accordance with law''. The Writ Petition N6.2913 of 1976, from out of which the writ appeal arises, was filed by five agriculturists of Bolarum village questioning the power of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board to collect a fee of Rs.5/- per motor vehicle and Re.1/- per cart on which vegetables and groundnut oil were carried by them from their village to the city markets via the Secunderabad Cantonment. Para3 of S.RO. 80 published in the Gazette of India dated 2 March 1974 by the Government of India, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 60 of the Cantonments Act 1924 (hereinafter referred to as the Act') is in the following terms:

(2.) On appeal, a Division Bench of this Court consisting of the Honourable the Chief Justice and Lakshamcma Rao, J., dismissed the writ appeal on the ground that the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is not a municipality within the meaning of Section 60 of the Act inasmuch as the power to levy tax was allowed in favour of the Cantonment to the extent the same can be exercised by a municipality in the State "wherein such cantonment is situated".

(3.) The matter was carried in appeal by the Cantonment Board to the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No.774 of 1986. By judgment dated 22 March 1995 it was ruled by the Supreme Court that the expression "municipality in the State'' has to be read' 'in broad and larger sense" and that the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation "is as much as municipality as any other municipality in the State''. While allowing the appeal, the Supreme Court remitted the matter back to this Court for disposal in accordance with law.