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TMI Blog1961 (5) TMI 66X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not to recover from the petitioner any water tax on the basis of those notices of demand on the ground that the tax is illegal and the Board had no jurisdiction to impose it. 3. The petitioner's attack on the validity of the water tax in question is principally three pronged. The first contention of the petitioner is that it was beyond the competence of the Board to levy this tax. Another contention is that by exempting the main residential palace of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur from water tax, the Board has discriminated against the petitioner. The imposition of the tax is, therefore, hit by the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution. The third contention of the petitioner is that publication of the proposal and the rules regarding the imposition of the tax was not made in accordance With the provisions of the Act and thus the petitioner was deprived of the opportunity of raising objections either to the proposal for imposition of tax or to the draft rules framed by the Board. 4. In addition to these main contentions the petitioner has also attacked the imposition of the water tax on two subsidiary grounds. One of them is that the alleged water tax is not a ta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... liable to pay the tax and a person owning land and building within the municipality may not use any municipal water and yet he has, according to the rules framed for the imposition of water tax, to pay the tax if his buildings are within a radius of 600 ft. from a stand-pipe. He has to pay the tax though he does not utilise the services of the municipal water-works. The element of quid pro quo is thus absent from this levy. We are, therefore, of the view that water tax is a tax. 7. Section 129 (a) of the Act lays down that water tax shall not be imposed on any land and building of which no part is within a radius to be fixed by rule in this behalf for each municipality, from the nearest stand-pipe or other water work whereat water is made available to public by the Board . Under Rule 8 of the Rules framed in connection with water tax in Rampur municipality, the radius governing the imposition of tax has been fixed to be 600 ft. In para 17 of the affidavit filed by the petitioner it is mentioned that there is no stand-pipe or other waterwork whereat water is made available to the public by the board within 600 ft. from the building of Buland Sugar Factory, the Central Offices of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... counsel for the petitioner, therefore, argued that it was beyond the legislative competence of the State Government to provide for the imposition of water tax. 9. Entry No. 49 in List II is 'Taxes on lands and buildings'. The contention of the opposite party is that the ware tax imposed by the Municipal Board of Rampur is really a tax on lands and buildings and the State Government has power to make Jaws in respect thereof. 10. It is obvious that the subject-matter of water tax is not water. Though it is called water tax, it is not levied on its production. As explained by their. Lordships qf the Judicial Committee in Governor-General in Council v. Province of Madras, AIR 1945 P. C 98, it is not the name of the tax but its real nature, its 'pith and substance' as it has 'sometimes been said, which must determine into what category it falls, 11. Clause (x) of Section 128 (1) of the Act makes it clear that a water tax is imposed on buildings or lands or both. It is true that the sub-clause reads as follows: 'a water tax on the annual value of buildings or lands or of both'. Section 3 of the U. P. Large Land Holdings Tax Act, 1957 provide tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ith maintenance and improvement of water works, it was put down in Section 128 in a different category from the tax provided for in Clause (i) of Sub-section (1) of Section 128. Sometimes a name is given to a tax with reference to the subject on which the incidence of the tax falls and sometimes with reference to the object with which the tax is levied. In pith and substance a water-tax imposed undr Clause (x) of Sub-section (1) of Section 128 is a tax on lands and buildings. 15. Another contention of the petitioner is that the water-tax imposed by the Rampur Municipal Board is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution inasmuch as in exempting the main palace of His Highness the Nawab of Rampur, the Board has discriminated against the other citizens including the petitioner and has imposed extra burden on the petitioner. 16. While Article 14 forbids class legislation it does not forbid reasonable classification. A Legislature for the purpose of dealing with the complex problems, (hat arise out of an indefinite variety of human relations, cannot but proceed upon some sort of selection or classification of persons upon whom legislation is to operate. The consequence of such l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the Municipal Board that Para. 7 of the Merger Agreement ran to the following effect:- In the event of house tax being levied in Rampur, the ruler's main residential palace will be exempted from such taxation. It was argued on behalf of the Board that water tax being similar in nature to house tax, exemption from water tax will be covered by paragraph 7 of the Merger Agreement, 18. We were referred to White Paper on Indian States, 1950 which contained a copy of the Merger Agreement entered into between the Nawab of Rampur and the Government of India. We did not find the above mentioned Para. 7 in the Merger Agreement as published in the White Paper. It appears that the stipulation contained in the alleged paragraph 7 did not form part the original agreement. Annexure 'M' to the counter affidavit, which is a letter from the Deputy Secretary to Government, U. P. Local Self Government Department addressed to the District Magistrate of Rampur, however, shows that in the background of Article 2 of the Merger Agreement, reproduced above, a clarification was made in the collateral correspondence that passed between the Nawab and the Government that in the event of hou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ch is published in Hindustani Or Hindi, though the script employed by it is Persian. 21. Article 343 of the Constitution provides that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script. In the Eighth Schedule 14 languages are enumerated as the languages of the country. In that schedule Hindi and Urdu are mentioned as separate languages. This Will show that language and script are different things. Language means vocabulary and script implies the manner of writing. It is true that a particular language is associated with a particular kind of character in which it is written, but the difference between language and script is substantial. It is possible to write English words in Devanagari or Persian script and similarly Hindi or Urdu can be written in Roman character. As no copy of the 'Aghaz' has been filed before us by any perty, We are not in a position to determine for ourselves if the vocabulary used by the paper is of Urdu or Hindi language. In view of the categorical assertions made by the opposite party in the counter-affidavit it is difficult for us to hold that Aghaz' is not published in Hindi language but we can say only this that the s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... R 1957 All 307, Raghavendra, Kripal v. Municipal Board, Hapur, AIR 1959 All 192 and Om Prakash Sharma v. Slate of Uttar Pradesh, 1959 A11 LJ 501. In the cases of Azimulla, AIR 1957-All 307 and Raghavendra Kripal, AIR 1959 All 192, the special resolutions proposing the imposition of the tax were not published in any local newspaper despite the fact that such newspapers were available for publication. Those cases, therefore, differ from the instant case inasmuch as in those cases no publication of the resolution was made at all. The case of Om Prakash Sharma, 1959 All LJ 501 simply lays down that Section 130-A of the Act empowers the State Government to fill up the gap created by the failure of the Board to carry out its directions by passing an order which will be treated in law as a resolution validly based by the Board, Such an order cannot of itself have the effect of imposing a tax on the inhabitants of the Municipality but may be treated as equivalent to a resolution passed by the Board, But it does not preclude the necessity of following all the other subsequent steps nor does it empower the State Government to short circuit the procedure laid down in the Act. 24. The provi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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