TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (12) TMI 1891
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.... judgment dated 9th October, 2019 in Public Interest Litigation No. 42 of 2018 and order dated 24th January, 2020 in MCA (Review) No. 42 of 2020 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Nagpur Bench [Hereinafter, being referred to as "High Court"] are subject matter of challenge in these appeals filed by the Akola Municipal Corporation [Hereinafter, being referred to as "appellant-Corporation"]. 3. The aforesaid writ petition in public interest came to be filed by respondent No.1-Dr. Zishan Hussain [Hereinafter, being referred to as "respondent-writ petitioner"] with the following prayers. "i) Issue any appropriate writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus and thereby declare that the revision of property tax by the respondent no.2 Municipal Corporation for the year 2017-18 to 2021- 22 is illegal, contrary to law and the revision of property tax is made without following due process of law; ii) Issue any appropriate writ, order or direction and thereby quash and set aside revision of property tax by respondent no.2 Municipal Corporation for the year 2017-18 to 2021-22 in the interest of justice; iii) Stay the eff....
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....tion 99 of the Act, the prior proposal or suggestion from the Standing Committee was not required and therefore, the Municipal Secretary prepared agenda for the General Body Meeting held on 03/04/2017. If the subject No.5 of General Body Meeting dated 03/04/2017 (Annexure A) is perused, then it will show that it only says about taking decision, about the revised rates of entire properties (Building and Lands) situated within Municipal Limits for calculation of their expected taxable value for various, categories and the various policies for assessment of taxable. values for the period from 2017 till 2021-22. Therefore, the objection of the petitioner that the criteria mentioned in Sections 127 and 129 is not followed, is incorrect and baseless. At the cost of repetition, the respondent Municipal Commissioner says that the rates of taxes already fixed in the year 2002 are not disturbed of changed or revised by the resolution dated 03/04/2017. [ .......... ] 11. The earlier verification of the properties and assessment of tax was done during the period of the then Akola Municipal Council. After the formation of Akola Municipal Corporation on 01/10/2001, verification....
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....tal activities had not been revised since the year 2001. 6. It cannot be disputed that the tasks assigned to every municipal body includes urban planning, public health and sanitation, waste management, provision of essential services, upkeep of infrastructure of the cities/towns. These activities are vital for public welfare and for maintaining the standard of life of citizens in every city or town, which are fundamental to ensuring health and dignified living, core requirements of the constitutional obligations owed to the citizens. Any lapse in these duties/activities may cause chaos, spread of diseases and in general adversely affect the quality of life of the citizens, for the welfare whereof the municipal bodies are formed to work. 7. Without the generation of revenue, the municipal bodies cannot be expected to sustain all these functions and perform their statutory obligations. It cannot be denied that the cost of all these activities/functions rises with passage of time and hence, revision in the tax structure on a regular basis to match the rising costs is unexceptionable. If the taxes are not revised in keeping with the rise in cost of infrastructure, human resource....
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....y locus of the respondent-writ petitioner in filing the writ petition before the High Court was questionable. The respondent-writ petitioner, in his writ petition, did not claim that he was representing the entire populace of the Akola city. For ready reference, the opening paragraphs of the writ petition wherein the respondent-writ petitioner adverted to his locus and grievances needs to be reproduced hereunder: - "Being aggrieved by the apparent and manifest irrationality in the arbitrary increase of property tax by the respondents no.2 and 3 without following due procedure of law and the grave procedural impropriety in the arbitrary assessments of property tax done by the respondent no.2 and 3 through Private Contractors contrary to law, the petitioner is challenging the arbitrary. Increase of property tax by the present writ petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India in public interest, as the petition does not have any of the efficacious remedy available than the present one for the redressal of grievances raised in the present petition. The facts which lead to present petition are as follows: 1. That, the petitioner is a citizen of India and per....
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....oposed on 3/4/2017 exceeds by 60% and therefore violates statutory provision, is misconceived. 3. Learned Government Pleader has pointed out that Municipal Corporation has specifically looked into this facet in Resolution dated 3/4/2017 and has noted that since 2001-02 there is no regular revision. 4. The petitioner did not come to this Court to enforce obligation of Municipal Council Municipal Corporation to revise property tax after every five years. He has chosen to approach Government or this Court only after the Municipal Corporation started efforts to revise the property tax. 5. It is apparent that the Municipal Corporation has to revise property tax from 2001-02 and recover the same as per law from the residents. 6. We, therefore, find present writ petition erroneous. It is dismissed. No costs." [Emphasis supplied] 18. Furthermore, the respondent-writ petitioner in the writ petition has challenged/questioned the tender floated and work order issued by the appellant-Corporation to the firm named Sthapatya Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., for the purpose of survey of properties situated within the jurisdictional limits of the appellant-Corporati....
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....ce of the courts. Judicial function in respect of such matters is exhausted when there is found to be a rational basis for the conclusions reached by the concerned authority.......... " 21. This Court has also held that judicial interference by way of public interest litigation is available only if there is injury to public because of dereliction of constitutional obligations on the part of the Government. The writ jurisdiction of the High Court cannot be exercised in public interest for questioning the economic/fiscal policy or reforms sought to be undertaken by the Government or its functionaries. In this regard, we may gainfully refer to the following observations made by a three-Judge Bench of this Court in the case of BALCO Employees' Union v. Union of India [(2002) 2 SCC 333]: - "93. Wisdom and advisability of economic policies are ordinarily not amenable to judicial review unless it can be demonstrated that the policy is contrary to any statutory provision or the Constitution. In other words, it is not for the courts to consider relative merits of different economic policies and consider whether a wiser or better one can be evolved. For testing the correctnes....
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....aim to balance domestic industry support with global trade commitments. The courts, lacking the same level of economic expertise and without the authority to make trade-offs among competing policy objectives, is typically not equipped to second-guess these kinds of decisions. 56. While courts have the power of judicial review to ensure that executive actions and legislative enactments comply with the Constitution, this power is not absolute. Judicial review is meant to act as a safeguard against actions that overstep legal boundaries or infringe on fundamental rights, but it does not entail a comprehensive re-evaluation of the policy's wisdom. The judicial review of policy decisions is limited to assessing the legality of the decision making process rather than the substantive merits of the policy itself. For example, if a government policy infringes on fundamental rights or discriminates against a particular group, the courts have a duty to strike down such policies. However, in the absence of constitutional or legal violations, the courts should respect the policy choices made by the executive or legislature. 57. The duty of the court in policy-related cases....
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....olicy decision taken by the appellant- Corporation to increase the rates of the property taxes and particularly when such revision was made after a considerable gap of about 16 years. 24. We have also gone through the reasoning assigned by the High Court for quashing and setting aside the resolution dated 3rd April, 2017 as modified by the subsequent resolution dated 19th August, 2017 passed by the appellant-Corporation determining the mode and manner in which the property taxes are to be imposed for a period of five years, i.e., from 2017-18 to 2021-22, thereby increasing the tax rates in respect of properties situated within the jurisdictional limits of appellant- Corporation. Ex facie, we are of the opinion that the aforesaid exercise was not permissible to be undertaken in the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of the Court and the decision of the appellant- Corporation regarding economic policies was beyond the scope of power of judicial review. There is no finding by the High Court that the decision to increase the tax rates was perverse or unconstitutional. 25. A perusal of the counter affidavit filed by the respondent-writ petitioner before this Court leaves no room for ....