K. MADHAVA REDDY, J.

( 1 ) 5 rate payers of Sattenapalli Gram Panchayat have filed a suit in a representative capacity on behalf of all the rate payers of the said panchayat questioning the revision of house taxes in the Panchayat in the year 1962, on the ground that it is illegal, arbitrary, capricious and unenforceable and have sought for a permanent injunction restraining the defendant-Gram Panchayat from giving effect to the said general revision.

( 2 ) IT is the case of the plaintiff that the Panchayat adopted the annual rental value as its basis for the fixation of houses taxes in which rental value itself is being calculated on the basis of the actual rents realised during the year. This basis was adopted both for the owner occupied houses as well as the tenant occupied houses. It is their contention that Sattenapalli is a town to which the Madras Buildings ( Lease and Rent ) Control Act as modified by the Andhra Pradesh Buildings ( Lease, Rent and Eviction ) Control Act, 1960 ( herein after referred to compendiously as the Rent Control Act ) applies and therefore the fair rent realised for the houses alone could be taken as the annual rental value of the building both for th

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