PANDU RAILWAY BAZAR COMMITTEE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. K. Paul, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Mr. S. Chakraborty, learned Standing Counsel, N.F. Railway.

(2.) The petitioner in this writ petition is the Pandu Railway Bazaar Committee which is stated to be a registered association of various licenced plot holders under the N.F. Railway at Pandu, Guwahati and it is claimed that the members of the Association are having shops on their respective plot allotted by the Railway on licence basis, further claiming that the parties are in occupation of such shops for last several decades. The grievance of the petitioner in the present writ petition is that when their association members wanted to deposit the licence fees for the month of April, 2018 for the following year, the authorities of the N.F. Railway refused to accept the same on the ground that their members would have to pay conservancy cess charge @ Rs.317/- from 01.04.2006 to 30.06.2012 and @ Rs.523/- month from 01.07.2012 to 30.06.2016. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that various members of the petitioner's Association had been paying conservancy cess charge @ Rs.20/- per month for the period of demand i.e. from the year 1999 till March 2013. Hence, the retrospective demand of conservancy cess @ Rs.317/- from 01.06.2006 till 30.06.2012 and Rs.523/- per month with effect from 01.07.2012 to 30.06.2016, is in challenge in the present writ petition.

(3.) It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that as the retrospective demand for conservancy cess was first made on 26.07.2013 without bringing to the notice of the members of the petitioner's Association about any notification by the N.F. Railway for levying conservancy cess charge for Rs.317/- and Rs. 523/- per month as indicated above, it is submitted that the demand by the N.F. Railway for enhancing conservancy cess charge is not sustainable.