1999 (7) TMI 695

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....is : if the Board, i.e., Board of Trustees of Visakhapatnam Port Trust is exempt from taxation under Article 285 of the Constitution from levy of property tax by the Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, constituted under Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Act, 1979 (Civil Appeal No. 1810 of 1988) and also from levy of non agricultural land tax by the Visakhapatnam Mandal under the Non-Agricultura....

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....he provisions of this Act, to acquire, hold or dispose of property and may by name by which it is constituted, sue or to be sued. Chapter IV of the Act deals with "Property and Contracts". Under Clause (a) of Section 29 all property, assets and funds and all rights to levy rates vested in the Central Government or, as the case may be, any other authority for the purposes of the port imme....

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....t was raised that the Board is not the absolute owner of the properties and that only the management of these properties vest with the Board. 4. We do not think that this argument has any basis. This Court in Municipal Commissioner of Dum Dum Municipality and Ors. v. India Tourism Development Corporation and Ors. (1995)5SCC251 , considered the same argument in the case of International Airport Au....

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....ng those properties and that the ownership of these properties continued to be with the Central Government. The Court held that the properties vest in the International Airport Authority of India and it could not be said that the Central Government owned the properties. Board in the present case is not a department of the Central Government rather it has the attributes of a company. It is distinct....