JUDGMENT - S.M. DAUD, J.:---These are appeals under section 218-D of the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, being Bombay Act No. III of 1888.

2. The assessee-respondent before us-is the owner-conductor of the Sangam Theatre which screens feature and other films, the theatre being situated at 127, Kurla Andheri Road, Andheri (East), Bombay 400 059. One of the taxes which the appellants-hereinafter to be referred to as the "BMC"-are entitled to impose is the property tax on a building or land. The preliminary step towards the fixing of the property tax is the fixing of a rateable value on the building or land assessable to such property tax. Section 154(1) of the Act says that in order to fix the rateable value of any building or land...there shall be deducted from the amount of the annual rent for which such land or building might reasonably be expected to let.. Some difficulty has been encountered, and not only in India, in respect of fixing the rateable value for theatres being conducted by the owners of the structures in which the films are screened. To get over this difficulty, the method evolved is that known as the apportionment of a certain percentage of the gross takings. The

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