Judgement

Consolidated Appeals (Nos. 7 and 8 of 1943) from a judgment and two decrees of the High Court (January 29, 1941), which had affirmed a judgment and two decrees of the Subordinate Judge of

Law. Rep. 71 Ind. App. 113 ( 1943- 1944) Madras and Southern Mahratta v. Bezwada Municipality

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Bezwada (March 31, 1937).

These appeals arose out of two suits brought by the appellants, the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Co., Ld., for a refund of property tax levied by the respondents, the Municipal Council, Bezwada, under the Madras District Municipalities Act, 1920, as amended to 1933, for the quinquennium beginning 1931-32 on vacant lands belonging to the appellants in the respondent municipality. The question was whether the provisions of the Act had been complied with in substance and effect by the respondents in levying the tax in question.

On March 15, 1929, the local self-government department of the government of Madras issued a notification regarding instructions for the assessment of railway buildings and land with effect from 1929-30, and which provided, inter alia, that " with the concurrence of the government of India, the local “ government are pleased to issue the