Judgment

MITTER, J. : This is a group of Writ Petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution challenging the validity of the assessment book relating to Special Property section prepared and published by the Municipal Corporation of the City of Ahmedabad by which the Municipality seeks to impose or has imposed property tax on properties described as Special Properties like textile mills, factories, buildings of the universities etc., on the basis of a flat rate per 100 sq. ft. of the floor area of the property situate within the municipal limits of the city. In Writ Petitions Nos. 133, 156-157 159-171, 178, 184 and 234 of 1966. the challenge relates to the validity of the assessment book relating to the year 1966-67: in Writ Petitions Nos. 206 and 210 of 1966. the challenge relates to the years 1964-65 and 1965-66 while in W. Ps. Nos. 207, 208 and 209 of 1966 the challenge relates only to the year 1965-66. The difference lies in this. So far as the assessments for the year 1966-67 and concerned. there has been no authentication of the assessment book after the disposal of all complaints relating to the entries made in the book while the challenge relating to the years l964-65 and 1965-66 is made at a statue after such authentication and in respect of which attachments of property belonging to the assessees have already been levied. in W. P. No. 234 of 1966 filed in October 1966, the issue of a distress warrant and the levy of attachment are also challenged. Several textile mills in the city of Ahmedabad are before this Court in these petitions and they have a common complaint against the assessments.

2. To appreciate the points raised in these petitions, it is necessary to take a bird s eye view of the relevant provisions of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporations Act (LIX of 1949) under which the assessments were purported to be made. S. 127 (1) of the Act makes it obligatory on the Corporation of the City of Ahmedabad to impose, among other taxes, a property tax. Sub-s. (3) of the section provides that municipal taxes shall be assessed and levied in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the Rules and sub-s (4) lays down that nothing in this section shall authorise the impositions of any tax which the State Legislature has no power to impose in the State under the Constitution. (it is needless to add that the Act has been amended after the Constitution came into force). S. 128 empowers the Corporation to recover the tax by the processes laid down in the section in the manner prescribed by rules. These are inter alia (1) by presenting a bill: (2) by serving a written notice of demand; (3) by distraint and sale of the defaulter s movable property: and (4) by the attachment and sale of a defaulter s immovable property. S. 129 lays down that for the purposes of sub-s. (1) of S. 127 property taxes shall comprise the taxes mentioned which shall, subject to the exceptions, limitations and conditions provided be levied on buildings and lands in the city. One of these mentioned in Cl. (c) is a general tax of not less than 12 per cent of their rateable value which may be levied, if the Corporation so determines, on a graduated scale. A building has been defined in S. 2, sub-s. (5) and land in S. 2, sub-s. (30). Land under this definition includes land which is being built upon or is built upon or covered with water, benefits to arise out of land, things attached to the earth or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and rights created by legislative enactment over any street. Under S. 2 (49) property tax means a tax on buildings and lands in the city. S. 2 (53) defines rack rent as the amount of the annual rent for which the premises with reference to which the term is used might reasonably be expected to let from year to year as ascertained for the purpose of fixing the rateable value of such premises and under S. 2 (54) rateable value means the value of any building or land fixed in accordance with the