Retrospective validation of municipal property tax collections upheld where clear legislative language cured prior irregular levy action.

Retrospective validation of municipal property tax collections was upheld where the transitional municipal scheme permitted continued levy collection until the Government directed otherwise, and the validating amendment expressly covered prior actions taken in continuation of the tax. The later amendment cured any earlier lack of entrustment under the principal Act or the transitional Government Order, and the fact that related assessment provisions were not themselves retrospective did not defeat the clear legislative intent to validate prior collections and assessments. The measure was treated as a permissible retrospective validation of irregular fiscal action within legislative competence, rather than an impermissible setting aside of a court decision.

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Issues: Whether the levy and collection of property tax by the Vijayawada Municipal Council under the impugned Government Order and the validating amendment were legally sustainable.

Analysis: The transitional scheme under the new municipal law permitted continuance of tax collection in the manner earlier prevailing until the Government directed otherwise. The impugned Government Order, though questioned as having been superseded and revived, was later covered by the validating provision in the Fourth Amendment Act. Section 4(1) expressly validated actions taken in continuation of property tax levies notwithstanding any earlier lack of entrustment under the principal Act or Government orders under the transitional rule. The challenge that the amendment to the assessment provisions was not retrospective did not defeat the clear legislative intent to validate the prior collections and assessments. The Court distinguished authority relied on by the appellants, holding that this was not a case of setting aside a court decision but of a permissible retrospective validation of irregular fiscal action within legislative competence.

Conclusion: The levy and collection were validly validated by the amendment and the challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The impugned High Court judgment was upheld and the municipal tax demands stood validated under the retrospective legislative measure.

Ratio Decidendi: A legislature may retrospectively validate prior municipal tax levies and collections by clear validating language, and such validation sustains prior irregular fiscal action where the constitutional competence to tax is not challenged.

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