PANCHAMLAL SIKRILAL Vs. MUNICIPAL BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issue of a writ of certiorari for quashing the resolutions and notifications of the opponents for the imposition of an octroi tax from 15th October 1959 on goods or animals brought within the limits of the Municipal Board, Rewa, for consumption or use therein and for the issue of a direction restraining the opponents from levying and collecting the octroi tax.

(2.) THE petitioner is a retail shopkeeper in Rewa town carrying on business in cloth and general merchandise. He brings cloth and other goods from various places for sale within the limits of the Rewa Municipal Board constituted under the Rewa state Municipalities Act, 1946. It was in 1954 that the Board first mooted the proposal for the imposition of octroi tax on goods and animals brought within the municipal limits in the exercise of its powers under Section 121 (1) (f) of the Act. For this purpose meetings of the Board were held on 13th and 24th May 1954, and the Board acting under Section '122 (1) framed certain proposals for the imposition of the tax. The proposals were published as required by Section 122 (3 ). After the publication of the proposals some objections were made to them. The objections were to have been considered at a meeting on 1st September 1954. The consideration of the objections was however postponed to a date in December 1954. But before the Board could consider the objections, it was dissolved and an administrative Officer was appointed under Section 283 to carry out the functions of the Board. On 21st October 1954 the Administrative Officer considered the proposals for imposition of the octroi tax, which had already been published, and the objections thereto, and after rejecting the objections forwarded the proposals to the Government for sanction under Section 123 (4 ). In 1956 the State government sanctioned the proposals and sent them to the Board along with the rules to be framed in respect of the imposition of the tax. This was done under section 125 of the Act. The rules were published in the Government Gazette dated 6th October 1956. It appears that in the meantime the regime of the administrative Officer came to an end and a legally constituted Board again began, functioning. At a meeting held on 13th February 1957 the Board decided that the government be requested to drop the proposals for imposition of the tax. On 22nd november 1958, the Board again resolved to represent to the Government that in view of the altered circumstances it was not necessary to impose any octroi tax. These requests were turned down by the Government, as, under Section 125 (2), after the tax proposals are sanctioned by the Government it is mandatory for the board to fix a date for the imposition of the tax by passing a special resolution. Ultimately at a meeting held on 30th March 1959, the Board decided that the tax be imposed from 15th October 1959. On 14th August 1959 a notification was published in the Government Gazette imposing octroi lax as specified in the notification issued on 29th September 1956 "on goods or animals brought within the limits of Rewa municipality for consumption or use therein with effect from the 15th October 1959. " In the schedule to the notification published in 1956 the articles which were subjected to octroi tax were describe and those articles included the goods in which the petitioner deals.

(3.) BEFORE us, the validity of the imposition was challenged mainly on two grounds. First, it was said that under Section 121 (1) (f) the Board was empowered to levy an octroi tax on goods or animals brought within the municipal limits for consumption or use therein and not on goods or animals brought within the municipal limits for sale, and that as the petitioner himself did not consume or use the goods which he brought within the municipality but sold them, he could not be called upon to pay any octroi tax on the goods brought by him. Secondly, it was urged that the several meetings at which the tax proposals were first formulated, the proposals sanctioned by the Government were considered and the date for the imposition of the tax was decided upon were not held in conformity with the provisions of the Act and were invalid, and consequently the imposition of the tax was not in accordance with Sections 122 to 125 of the Act.