SUKUMAR CHAKRABORTY Vs. ASSISTANT ASSESSOR COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petitioner has challenged the Memo, dated 28th June, 1988 issued by the Assistant Assessor-Collector, Ward No. 93, Tollygung Tax Department, of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation intimating to the petitioner refusing to mutate his name in respect of Premises No. 1/145, Gariahat Road (345, Jodhpur Park), Calcutta-68. The case of the writ petitioner briefly is that the father of the petitioner, Sudeb Sundar Chakraborty since deceased, was a member of Bengal Secretariat Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank and Housing Society Ltd., a body corporate constituted under the Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 1940 (now W.B. Co-operative Societies Act, 1983). The Society owned and possessed a big plot of land at Premises No. 1, Gariahat Road, which was sub-divided and distributed amongst its members according to the value of the shares and the father of the petitioner was allotted the Plot No. 345 by the Society whereon he constructed a two-storied building. The father of the petitioner held 20 'A' class shares and interests in the said Plot No. 345. The father nominated his elder son, the petitioner, as his nominee and the name of the petitioner was recorded in the register of nominated persons of the Society. After the death of the father in 1963 it was incumbent upon the Society to dispose of the share or interest of his father in favour of the petitioner and accordingly he applied for the membership of the Society and for transfer of shares and interest in the said Plot No, 345. The Director-Secretary (Hony.) of the Society informed the petitioner by Letter, dated 11th July, 1984 that the transfer of the aforesaid 20 'A' class shares and the interest in the said Plot No. 345 has been accepted by the Committee of Management in favour of the petitioner: on the terms and conditions under which his deceased father held them. Accordingly his name would be registered in the books of the Society on payment of the requisite fee, and the formalities were eventually gone through and the shares and interest of the petitioner's deceased father devolved upon the petitioner.

(2.) Then on 19th December, 1983 the petitioner applied to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation for mutation of his name in the Corporation records in respect of the aforesaid plot and also paid all the arrear taxes. Thereafter he produced the Death Certificate of his father, the Affidavit regarding legal heirs of his father, and No-objection letter from his sisters and mother. By a Letter, dated 12th November, 1987 the Corporation once again asked the petitioner to submit an Affidavit stating that he was the only representative of his deceased father. The petitioner again complied with the direction and submitted Affidavit according to the W.B. Co-operative Societies Act. The Director-Secretary of the Society also by a communication dated 30th November, 1987 wrote to the Corporation that the petitioner is now the owner of the premises in question by virtue of the nomination made by his deceased father. Thereafter the impugned Memo of 28th June, 1988 was received.

(3.) It is submitted by Mr. Bagchi, the Learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner, that the premises in question involved is a property of the Co-operative Society and not an ordinary property and is governed by the provisions of the W.B. Co-operative Societies Act and Rules. The shares and interest of a member of a Co-operative Society devolves on a person nominated by him after his death and, as such, the shares and interest of the deceased father of the petitioner devolved upon the petitioner and he became a full-fledged member enjoying the father's interest in the said Society as a member. It is the duty of the Corporation to mutate the name of the petitioner in respect of the said premises according to the provisions of the said Act and Rules framed thereunder and it is never open to the Corporation to question the provision of law.