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TMI Blog1976 (3) TMI 256X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the precise ground alleged in the plaint, and adverse judgment was rendered affecting the municipality in a general way. Naturally, the appellant Mahipalika has come to this Court by special leave under Article 136 of the Constitution, overstepping the limits of law a little, as will presently appear. 2. The brief (acts necessary to appreciate the contentions on which the High Court has pronounced may now be stated) although in so doing, we have to depart from the pleadings Indeed, the questions are of general public importance and so, apart from technical bounds, we proceed to declare the law. 3. The Agra Municipal Board was governed by the U.P. Municipalities Act, 1916 (Act II of 1916). In 1947, the State Government issued a notif ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ipal Law's operation, viz., the pre Constitution era and the post-nagar Mahapalika Act era, with the intervening spell sandwiched in between these two. According to the High Court, the levy of tax at the rate of 14 annas per 1000 bricks by virtue of the notification Ex. H of September 18, 1947 cannot be sustained to the extent it exceeds Rs. 50/- per person, per annum. The ground given-and, we think, rightly-is that Section 142(2) of the Government of India Act restricted the total amount payable in respect of any one person to any one municipality...by way of taxes on profession, trades, callings and employments, shall not...exceed Rs. 50/-per annum'. To the extent to which this ceiling was exceeded, the constitutional provision s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssions, trades, callings and employments shall not exceed two hundred and fifty rupees per annum; Provided that If in the financial year immediately preceding the commencement of this Constitution there was in force in the case of any State or any such municipality, board or authority a tax on professions, trades, callings or employments, the rate, or the maximum rate, of which exceeded two hundred and fifty rupees, per annum, such tax may continue to be levied until provision to the contrary is made by Parliament by law, any law so made by Parliament may be made either generally or in relation to any specified States, municipalities, boards or authorities. (3) ... Inevitably, it follows that during the post Constitution perio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he High Court stems from a simple misconstruction of the proviso to Section 172 of the Mahapalika Act. The said proviso operates as a saving clause affecting the whole section and may, for facility of making the point, clearly be read here: 172 ... Provided that where any tax was being lawfully levied in the area included in the city immediately before the commencement of the Constitution of India such tax may continue to be levied and applied for the purpose of this Act until provision to the contrary is made by Parliament. It is plain that 'much tax' in this proviso relates to any tax under Section 172 and saves all species or classes of taxes and does not merely preserves the quantum or rate of such tax. It is typolo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e entitled to collect tax on trade or calling at the rate fixed in Ex. H, hut subject to the maximum of Rs. 50/- per person, as already explained. For the second period from the date of the Constitution up to the date of the Mahapalika Act II of 1959, the maximum leviable by way of tax on trade or calling by the Mahapalika will be Rs. 250/- per person. The post Mahapalika Act period will also be controlled by the same constitutional maximum of Rs. 250/- per person, unless any supervening parliamentary legislation, as contemplated by Section 172 of that Act, comes into being. 12. In this view, we allow the appeal in apart, i.e. for the period subsequent to the passing of the Mihapalika Act, 1959 and permit the Mahapalika to levy taxes-as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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