Exclusive statutory remedy bars civil suit for refund where terminal tax dispute concerns classification and rate within the taxing scheme.

A statutory terminal tax levy imposed under the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, was held to be challengeable only through the Act's special appellate and reference machinery. A civil suit for refund could not be maintained where the complaint concerned an alleged wrong entry, classification, or higher rate applied within the statutory taxing scheme. Civil court jurisdiction remains available only if the municipality acts wholly outside the Act or beyond its statutory powers. A mere error in applying the correct rate to a commodity is an error within the statute and must be pursued under the prescribed remedies, not by civil proceedings.

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Issues: Whether a civil suit lay for refund of terminal tax collected by a municipality when the levy was made under the statutory taxing power but the assessee contended that the wrong entry and higher rate had been applied.

Analysis: The liability to pay terminal tax was created by the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, and the Act itself provided a complete machinery for challenge by appeal and reference, while also barring any challenge to liability or refund otherwise than in the manner prescribed by the Act. A levy made within the statutory framework, even if the rate or classification is alleged to be erroneous, is a matter for the statutory appellate remedy and not for a civil suit. Civil court jurisdiction is preserved only where the authority acts outside the Act or in excess of its statutory powers; a mere mistake in applying the correct rate to a commodity remains an error within the Act.

Conclusion: The civil court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit for refund, and the mistake, if any, in classification or rate could be corrected only under the statutory remedies.

Final Conclusion: The appeal was rejected because the dispute concerned the correctness of the statutory levy and assessment, not an act wholly outside the municipal taxing power.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute creates the liability and provides a special remedy, that remedy is exclusive for grievances arising within the statutory scheme; civil court jurisdiction survives only for actions wholly outside the statute or in excess of statutory power.

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