TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1947 (7) TMI 12
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....ess of the amounts payable by him under agreements dated respectively July 25, 1900, February 18, 1915, and December 21, 1924, for repayment of Rs. 606-7-0 illegally levied from him in the years 1928 to 1981 inclusive, and for other relief. 3. The Subordinate Judge and the District Judge held that the suit was barred Under Section 4(b) of the Bombay Revenue Jurisdiction Act (X of 1876), and that the three agreements were cancelled by an order of the Governor in Council dated April 11, 1930, levying assessment at the full standard rate on the entire holding of the respondent as from 1927-1928, and that the Governor in Council was competent to pass such an order under Section 211 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879 (Bombay Act V of 1879), hereinafter referred to as "the Code." 4. The High Court on second appeal and on the Letters Patent appeal reversed the decision of the lower Courts on both points of law, and held that the 1924 agreement was unenforceable and duly cancelled by the appellant, but held that the 1915 agreement was still enforceable as regards buildings erected before 1920, that the full standard rate should not be applied to such buildings, and that the appell....
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....s hereby granted subject to the provisions of the said Code, and rules and orders thereunder, and on the following special terms and conditions, namely: 1. The applicant in lieu of the present assessment leviable in respect of the said plot of land shall pay to Government without deduction on the first day of January in each and every year an annual assessment of Rs. 27 only during the fifty years commencing on the first day of August 1903, and ending on 31st day of July, 1953, and thereafter such revised assessment as may from time to time be fixed by the Collector under the said Code and rules and orders thereunder:... (3) The applicant is hereby prohibited under the last paragraph of Section 48 of the said Code, from appropriating, without the previous permission in writing of the Collector, any part of the said plot of land to any purpose other than that for which permission to appropriate it is herein-before granted to the applicant: Provided that: (i) nothing in the above shall be deemed to prohibit the applicant: (a) from erecting or constructing, without such previous permission, in the portion (c)(i.e. appropriated for the purpo....
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....he Code, and Rule 87(b) thereof prescribed that on the assessment of land used for non-agricultural purposes a sanad should be granted in form M attached to the Rules. This superseded form A, which had been used in the agreements of 1906 and 1915. 9. On November 12, 1922, the respondent applied for permission to further extend the factory, and a plan shewing the proposed construction work was submitted with the application. After correspondence, the Collector on July 27, 1923, granted permission and approved the plan, and stated that he would be given a sanad in form M. The respondent demurred to this, and asked for form A, to which the Collector agreed on June 9, 1924. Thereafter an agreement was executed on December 21, 1924, in form A, in similar terms to the 1915 agreement, except that the proviso (i) (c) of Clause 3 was struck out. Their Lordships do not trouble with this agreement, for both the appellant and the respondent accepted the finding of the High Court that it was unenforceable, as the Collector had no authority to act as agent of the Government in becoming a party to an agreement in the old form A. 10. On receipt of a circle-inspector's report that the res....
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....ue a fresh order according to his instructions was improper. These proceedings arc hereby cancelled, and Government are pleased to direct that non-agricultural assessment at the full standard rate shall be levied on the entire holding of the petitioner with effect from the year 1927-28 and that a sanad in form M appended to the Land Revenue Rules 1921 shall be issued. The petitioner should be referred to the Commissioner, N.D., for a reply to his petition. 14. On October 28, 1930, the Collector informed the respondent of the purport of the said order, and requested him to submit plans shewing the existing buildings to enable the Collector to grant him a sanad in form M. In terms of the said order rates to the amount of Rs. 702-7-0 were recovered from the respondent. 15. On October 13, 1931, the respondent brought the present suit, asking for the declaration already referred to, and repayment of Rs. 606-7-0 as illegally levied from him. 16. The appellant, in the first place, maintains that the jurisdiction of the civil Courts over the subject-matter of this suit is excluded by Section 4(b) of the Bombay Revenue Jurisdiction Act, 1876, which, so far as material, pro....
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...., under which the appellant sought to justify it. This aspect of the case does not appear to have been separately considered by any of the Courts below, but, in the opinion of their Lordships, it should logically be first considered. Section 211 of the Code, so far as material, provides as follows: 211. The Governor in Council and any revenue officer, not inferior in rank to an Assistant or Deputy Collector or a Superintendent of Survey, in their respective departments, may call for and examine the record of any inquiry or the proceedings of any subordinate officer, for the purpose of satisfying himself as to the legality or propriety of any decision or order passed, and as to the regularity of the proceedings of such officer. * * * * If, in any case, it shall appear to the Governor in Council, or to such officer aforesaid, that any decision or order or proceedings so culled for should be modified, annulled, or reversed, he may pass such order thereon as he deems fit. 17. In order to appreciate the true nature of the agreements founded on b....
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....tances otherwise direct, no such application shall be recognised except it be made by the occupant. When any such land is thus permitted to be used for any purpose unconnected with agriculture it shall be lawful for the Collector, subject to the general orders of Government, to require the payment of a fine in addition to any new assessment which may be leviable under the provisions of section 48. 66. If any such land be so used without the permission of the Collector being first obtained, or before the expiry of the period prescribed by Section 65, the occupant and any tenant, or other person holding under or through him, shall be liable to be summarily evicted by the Collector from the land so used and from the entire field or survey number of which it may form a part, and the occupant shall also be liable to pay, in addition to the new assessment which may be leviable under the provisions of section 48 for the period during which the said land has been so used, such fine as the Collector may, subject to the general orders of Government, direct. * * * * 67. Nothing in the last two preceding sections shall prevent the granting of the permission aforesaid on such terms ....
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....., that the Secretary of State is entitled to levy from him only non-agricultural assessment under the agreement of 13th February, 1915, on the land built upon out of Survey Nos. 149 and 150/A of Mouje Changispur alias Mithakhali in pursuance of that agreement. The Court grants an injunction that the full standard rate shall not be applied to the buildings erected by the plaintiff before 1920 under the terms of the agreement of 1915 and directs that Government shall refund to the plaintiff any sum either by way of altered assessment or penalty levied in excess of that stipulated in the agreement in respect to the buildings as they existed in 1920. The excess sum, if any, shall be determined in execution. As to buildings erected after 1920 the plaintiff is not entitled to any declaration, Government being entitled to levy such altered assessment as may be leviable in accordance with law. That decree was confirmed in the letters patent appeal. Their Lordships feel bound to express their difficulty in appreciating how such a decree can be reconciled with the established facts of the case, apart from the question whether it correctly states the legal position. 20. The agreement o....
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....hat question having been thus resolved, it is then necessary to consider whether the jurisdiction of the civil Court as to any further question on the merits is excluded by Section 4 (b) of the Bombay Revenue Jurisdiction Act, 1876. On this point Wassoodew J. says On the principal question it seems to me that Section 4(b) of the Revenue Jurisdiction Act (X of 1878) cannot operate as a bar to these proceedings. In effect the plaintiff has sought for a declaration that certain agreements between the parties as to the levy of assessment on his land were binding upon Government. He did not directly question the legality of the orders of Government on any other ground or their power to levy full standard rates upon conversion of agricultural holding if the agreements did not operate as a bar. In terms he is asserting a right independently of the question of the legality of Government's right to recover altered assessment. Now such a suit could not be described as a suit objecting to the amount or incidence of any assessment of land revenue authorised by Government, or to the mode of assessment, or to the principle on which such assessment is fixed, within the meaning of clause (6) o....