MOHADEV AON Vs. CHAIRMAN OF THE HOWRAH MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question raised by this second appeal is one of considerable importancenamely, whether arable lands are liable to be rated under the Bengal Municipal Act, 1884. The original suit was brought for a declaration that certain land within the limits of the Howrah Municipality, of which the plaintiff was in possession as a cultivator for the purpose of growing betel, was exempt from assessment under Section 85 of the Act, for an injunction restraining the Municipal Commissioners of Howrah, through their Chairman, the defendant, from levying upon it the tax imposed on holdings thereunder, and for the recovery, after refund, of the amount actually realised from the plaintiff in respect of the said tax and costs. The Court of first instance and the lower appellate Court have concurred in dismissing the suit, and the plaintiff has now appealed to this Court.

(2.) That Section 85 of the Act provides in clear and unambiguous language for the imposition of a tax upon all holdings" or, in the alternative, of a tax upon all persons occupying holdings" in a Municipal area cannot, of course, be gainsaid; and the question before us thus resolves itself into one as to whether or not a parcel of arable land, occupied as such, is a holding" within the purview of the enactment.

(3.) By Section 6, Clause (3), of the Act the expression holding" is defined as meaning land held under one title or agreement and surrounded by one set of boundaries, while land" is made, by Clause (5) of the same section, to include things attached to the earth; so that it is equally indisputable that the word holding" is, in itself, wide enough to cover arable land.