NOTRE DAME ACADEMY MUNGER Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner's school claims to be an educational institution being run for charitable purposes without any purpose of profit. The premises, situate at the Peepal Painti Road, Munger, from where they are running the institution has been assessed under Sec. 127 of the Bihar Municipal Act 2007 ('Act of 2007' for short) for the purposes of holding tax on rates applicable to principal main road. Accordingly, a demand has been raised for arrears and current holding tax on rates applicable to principal main roads. The total outstanding has been quantified at Rs.9,93,578.00 for the period between financial year 1997-98 to 2010-11, vide communication dtd. 21/6/2011 issued by the Municipal Commissioner, Munger Municipal Corporation.

(2.) The petitioner's school does not agree with the said demand raised by the Municipal Corporation on two grounds: One, that being a charitable institution and due to the fact that the building is used as religious residence for religious women in the Catholic Church, it is exempt from the tax demand under Sec. 124(2) of the Act of 2007. The second issue raised by the petitioner's school is that there is no notification issued in terms of Sec. 127 of the Act of 2007 notifying Peepal Painti Road, Munger as a principal main road. In the absence of such notification, the Municipal Corporation cannot demand holding tax from the petitioner's institution, which is situated on Peepal Painti Road, accessing holding tax at the rate applicable to principal main roads.

(3.) Under these circumstances, the petitioner's school filed an objection petition against the demand raised under communication dtd. 21/6/2011. Vide objection dtd. 29/7/2011, petitioner has claimed that Peepal Painti Road should be treated as under "Others" category, and not principal main road. By this objection, petitioner also requested the Municipal Corporation to provide the details of calculation based on which the demand was arrived at. The detailed calculation was communicated by the Municipal Corporation under its communication dtd. 4/8/2011.