A notice under Section 384 of the Corporation Act is mandatory and must be given to the Corporation, not to the Chief Executive Officer.

JUDGMENT - 1. This is an appeal by the plaintiff who succeeded in the trial Court but failed in the first appellate Court. The Plaintiff has filed a suit claiming Rs. 250/- as damages because the defendant-Corporation of the City of Nagpur had cut his water connection on 26-2-1959. The plaintiffs complaint is that he had paid all the municipal taxes including the water rate of all his four houses till the end of the financial year 1957-58. There were no arrears at the end of that year. It appears that he had also paid a sum of Rs. 150/- on 15-1-1959 towards the municipal taxes which were, however, appropriated to the knowledge of the plaintiff towards the conservancy and water and property taxes of houses Nos. 519 and 519/2. A balance of Rs. 19.02 was appropriated towards the conservancy tax of house No. 518/1. His grievance is that in spite of all this payment, he received a notice on 16-2-1959 purported to be issued under Rule 7 Section 114/115 (14) of the City of Nagpur Corporation Act (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation Act). It called upon him to pay a sum of Rs. 463.97 as arrears for the year 1958 59. This included also a water tax.

2. The first ground of attack by the plaintiff against this notice is that the water rate arrears at that time amounted only to Rs. 202.50, yet the municipal-Corporation demanded by that notice an aggregate sum of Rs. 463.97, which included also the other municipal taxes. According to him, such a notice for the recovery of water taxes and thereafter cutting his water supply for non-payment would be illegal. The second ground of attack against the notice and the action of the corporation of cutting off the water supply is that such an action is not warranted by any provision of law of the Corporation Act. The plaintiff, therefore, pleads that because of the cutting of water connection of his houses, he suffered an extreme inconvenience, mental and physical trouble. Therefore, he claims damages to an extent of Rs. 250/-.

3. The defendant-Corporation resisted the claim of the plaintiff and stated that the plaintiff refused to pay the arrears of .his taxes; that their action is justified by the provisions of the Corporation Act; that the action of the Corporation officials was bona fide and not illegal.

4. The learned Civil Judge framed quite a number of issues and after recording the evidence, held that the plaintiff was in arrears of water tax for the year 1958-59 and that Rule 7, under which the notice was given demanding the arrears of water tax, was applicable to the City of Nagpur, under the Corporation Act. According to him, the action of the Corporation in cutting off the water supply, however, was illegal He held that the notice dated 16-2-1959, demanding the arrears of water tax, was illegal but, according to him, the action was neither mischievous nor arbitrary and mala fide, but because he held the action of the defendant corporation illegal, therefore, he passed a decree for damages. That decree, was therefore, challenged and the learned Extra Assistant Judge, after considering the evidence, found that the notice given by the defendant-Corporation was quite legal and, according to him, the action of the Corporation in cutting the water supply was also not illegal. Accordingly. therefore, he found that the plaintiff was not entitled to claim damages. Therefore, he set aside the decree of the trial Court and dismissed the plaintiffs suit. This decree of the Extra Assistant Judge is, therefore, challenged here in this second appeal.

5. It would be better to recapitulate certain facts for the purpose of deciding this appeal. It is common ground that there were no arrears till the end of 1957-58. But there were certain arrears during the period of 1958-59. Under the Collection Rules of the Corporation Act, the taxes shall be paid half-yearly in advance by the 15th of April and the 15th of October in each year by the owner of the building as shown in the Assessment Register. Therefore,

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