TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1963 (2) TMI 50
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....1958 reduced the rates from Re. 1 to 80 np. per day and from 50 nP. to 40 nP. per day. By a further resolution dated November 22, 1959 the Municipal Council modified the resolution of September 12, 1958 and instead imposed a prohibition on using as a bus stand or halting place a public place or side of a public road within a radius of six furlongs from the Municipal bus stand. Some of the operators who were using that bus stand did not pay the charges due from them for the use of the bus stand. Demand notices were, therefore, issued against them. The respondent in this appeal, Joseph, as well as the respondents in the other two appeals, Anthony and Eapen, who were recipients of such notices preferred writ petitions before the High Court of Kerala challenging the validity of the action taken by the Municipal Council and praying for quashing of the demand notices issued against them. it may be mentioned that the various resolutions of the Municipal Council to which we have adverted were passed by it in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by ss. 286 and 287 of the Travancore District Municipalities Act, XXIII of 1116 M. E. (which corresponds to A. D. 1941). Those provisions read ....
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....on in the area concerned, determine places at which motor vehicles may stand either indefinitely or for a specified period of time, and may determine the places at which public service vehicles may stop for a longer time than is necessary for the taking tip and setting down of passengers." Incidentally we may mention that this section continued in force until the Travancore-Cochin Motor Vehicles Act was replaced partially by the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Central Act 4 of 1939) on its extension to Travancore Cochin by Part B States (Laws) Act, 1951 (Central Act 3 of 1951). The Central Act, of course, has no bearing upon the argument advanced before us because if in fact ss. 286 and 287 were repealed by implication by s. 72 of the Travancore Cochin Motor Vehicles Act the effect of the partial replacement of the Travancore Cochin Motor Vehicles Act by the Central Motor Vehicles Act does not fall to be considered. The High Court accepted the contention urged by the respondents in these three appeals and observed : "The T.C. Motor Vehicles Act, 1125 was enacted, as the preamble shows, in order to provide 'a uniform law relating to motor vehicles' and we see no reason ....
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....t as soon as the legislature is found dealing with the same subject matter in two acts, so far as the later statute derogates from and is inconsistent with the earlier one, the legislature must be held to have intended to deal in the later statute with the same subject matter which was within the ambit of the earlier one. Upon this view they held that the Metropolitan Board of Works had authority to name streets and number houses in the City of London and that the orders of '%.lie Board as to numbering of houses in the City of London override the order of the Commissioners in the same matter. A question was posed before the court as to whether the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London had authority to number the houses and buildings in the streets in the City of London tinder s. 145 of the City of London Sewers Act even after the passing of the Metropolitan Local Management Act. The learned judges declined to answer that question and Erle C. J. said : "When the metropolitan board of works choose to interfere in a matter which is entrusted to them by the general act, the city commissioners are subject to the metropolitan board. But. whether a concurrent jurisdictio....
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....nd, therefore, the special statute had to give way, to the later general statute. We have not been able to trace the third case upon which the learned judges have relied because the reference which they have given of that case in the judgment is incomplete. They have merely stated "103 LJKB" without stating the page of the report or the names of the parties. Unfortunately all the citations of the High Court suffer from the latter defect. They have, however, given the following quotations from the judgment of Scrutton, L. J., and Maugham, L. J. The quotation from the former is : "I repeal the previous Act also in another way'. ,namely, by enacting a provision clearly inconsistent with the previous Act." The quotation from the judgment of Maugham, L. J. is : "It is quite plain that the Legislature is unable, according to our constitution, to bind itself as to the form of subsequent legislation; and it is impossible for Parliament to say that in no subsequent Act of Parliament dealing with this same subject-matter shall there be an implied repeal." The latter observations make it clear that the doctrine of implied repeal was invoked while consideri....
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.... will not repeal the particular provisions of a former one, unless the two acts are irreconcilably inconsistent. 'The reason and philosophy of the rule,' says the author, 'is, that when the mind of the legislator has been turned to the details of a subject, and he has acted upon it, a subsequent statute in general terms, or treating the subject in a general manner, and not expressly contradicting the original act, shall not be considered as intended to affect the more particular or positive previous provisions, unless it is absolutely necessary to give the latter act such a construction, in order. that its words shall have any meaning at all." " For implying a repeal the next thing to be considered is whether the two statutes relate to the same subject matter and have the same purpose. Crawford has stated at p. 634 : "And, as we have already suggested, it is essential that the new statute covers the entire subject matter of the old; otherwise there is no indication of the intent of the legislature to abrogate the old law. Consequently, the (1) 18 Calif. 438 quoted by Crawford "Statatory Construction" p. 633, later enactment will be construed as....
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....t as a qualification of or exception to the general law." Of course, there is no rule of law to prevent repeal of a special by a later general statute and, therefore, where the provisions of the special statute are wholly repugnant to the general statute, it would be possible to infer that the special statute was repealed by the general enactment. A general statute applies to all persons and localities within its jurisdiction and scope as distinguished from a special one which in its operation is confined to a particular locality and, therefore, where it is doubtful whether the special statute was intended to be repealed by the general statute the court should try to give effect to both the enactments as far as possible. For, as has been pointed out at p. 470 of Sutherland on Statutory Construction, Vol. R I where the repealing effect of a statute is doubtful, "the statute is to be strictly (1) Vol. 1, 3rd Edn, p. 486 construed to effectuate its consistent operation with previous legislation." In the case before us the contention is not that the whole of the District Municipalities Act has been abrogated by the Motor Vehicles Act but that s. 72 of the latter Act is ....
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....Travancore District Municipalities Act and s. 72 of the Travancore- Cochin Motor Vehicles Act ? The latter provision has a wider territorial application than the former and can in that sense be said to be a general one, while the former being applicable only to municipal areas is a special one. Being a special provision s. 286 cannot readily be considered as having been repealed by the more general provision of s. 72 of the Travancore Cochin Motor Vehicles Act. But we must bear in mind that s. 286 does not stand by itself and in order to effectuate the purpose underlying it the legislature has enacted s. 287, apparently intending that when action is taken by a municipality under s. 286 it may also take consequential action under s. 287. Could it, therefore, be said that there is conflict between ss. 286 and 287 on the one hand and s. 72 of the Travancore- Cochin Motor Vehicles Act on the other because while under s. 287 a municipality can prohibit the use as a halting place of any place within a specified distance of the bus stand constructed by it, the Government or other appropriate authority can by order permit places within the prohibited area to be used as halting places ? It ....