A municipal corporation can recover dues such as toll tax as arrears of land revenue through provisions of the Revenue Recovery Act.

JUDGMENT :

FIRDOSH P. POONIWALLA, J.

RULE. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard finally by consent of the parties.

2. By the present Petition, the Petitioner is seeking the following final reliefs :-

“(a) this Hon’ble Court be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus directing the Respondents to take steps as per law and discharge their statutory duty by executing the warrants of distress/recovery certificates dated 26.11.2021, 20.12.2021, 22.12.2021, 21.02.2023, 27.02.2023 and 02.03.2023 issued by the Petitioner and more specifically mentioned in para 20 hereinabove.”

3. The Petitioner is a statutory body incorporated under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, (“the DMC Act”) having the responsibility of monitoring, upgrading and developing civic amenities which are entrusted to it under the statute as detailed in the DMC Act. One of the functions with which the Petitioner is entrusted is Toll Tax Collection from the commercial vehicles entering Delhi from 124 toll points around Delhi, which is also one of the main sources of its revenue under Section 113 (2)(g) of the DMC Act.

4. Since the Petitioner does not have the man power to collect the Toll Tax and to monitor the huge daily cash collection of almost Rs.2.5 Crores per day from the said 124 toll points, the said work is given on contract basis to third parties under the Delhi Municipal (Toll Tax) Byelaws, 2007 (“the 2007 Bye-laws”) read with Section 113 of the DMC Act.

5. Respondent No.7 is one of the parties to which such a Contract was given. It is the case of the Petitioner that Respondent No.7 started making defaults and made delayed remittances to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (“SDMC”) from the beginning itself, for which penalties were imposed upon it from time to time. That when huge defaults accumulated over a period of time, the Petitioner was compelled to issue various demand notices.

6. Respondent No.7 defaulted in payment of the due amount and the same is liable to be recovered under the DMC Act. In furtherance thereof, the Petitioner sought to recover a sum of Rs.3927,06,55,004/- towards dues under the DMC Act, which has (as on 30th April, 2022) become Rs.4970,81,91,077/- by calculation of interest/penalty under the Contract Provisions.

7. It is also the case of the Petitioner that is duty bound and under a statutory obligation to recover the said amounts due from Respondent No.7 on account of Toll Tax collection, which Respondent No.7 has failed and defaulted to deposit with the Government Exchequer. In exercise of such functions, the Petitioner has issued warrants of distress for attachment and sale of movable and immovable properties of Respondent No.7 for recovering the said dues as arrears of tax.

8. Since some of the properties of Respondent No.7 are situated outside the territory of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, including in Mumbai, Thane and Pune Districts of Maharashtra, which are within the territorial jurisdiction of this Court, the Petitioner sought the assistance of Respondent Nos.2, 3 and 4 to act on its request to attach properties of Respondent No.7 in its jurisdiction under the provisions of Section 5 of the REVENUE RECOVERY ACT , 1890 (“the REVENUE RECOVERY ACT ”).

9. The Petitioner had made separate written requests to Respondent Nos. 2 to 5 vide letters dated 23rd August, 2021, urging them to take immediate action against Respondent No.7 in realization of arrears of due amounts. However, due to the