ORDER

Judgment of Hon ble B.P. Jeevan Reddy, A.S. Anand, Suhas C. Sen, K.S. Paripoornan and B.N. Kirpal, JJ. Delivered by B.P. Jeevan Reddy, J. (Majority Opinion) :

1. Article 289(1) of the Constitution of India declares that the "property and income of a State shall be exempt from Union taxation". The question in this batch of appeals is whether the properties of the States situated in the Union Territory of Delhi are exempt from property taxes levied under the municipal enactments in force in the Union Territory of Delhi. The Delhi High Court has taken the view that they are. That view is challenged in these appeals preferred by the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Municipal Corporation.

2. Leave granted in the Special Leave Petitions.

3. Prior to 1911-12, a large part of the territory now comprised in the Union Territory of Delhi was a district of the Province of Punjab. By a Proclamation dated September 17, 1912, the Governor General took the said territory under his immediate authority arid, management, to be administered as a separate Province to be known as the Prov