Judgment

BEG, J.:- This appeal, by certification under Article 133 (1) (c) of the Constitution, is Directed against the judgment of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court holding that, although, a vacant plot of land is rateable under the provisions of the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act 3 of 1888 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), and so is land which has been built upon yet, any part of land which is being actually built upon is not rateable until the building is finished because no tenant cannot take it in that condition in other words of the Division Bench upheld what may be called the doctrine of sterility with which the land was said to have been struck during the period when a building was being actually put up on it. The appellant Corporation question the applicability of this doctrine to rating of land in this country.

2. Before proceeding further, we may briefly give the facts and circumstances in which the question mentioned above arises. The respondent Company is the owner of 6652 sq. yds of land, out of which 450 sq. yds, were deducted for having fallen within "the set back line". Out of the remaining area of 6202 sq. yds., 1060 sq. yds., was being built upon at t