Validity of consolidated assessment and oral partition of joint family property under the Kerala Building Tax Act

77.5 cents of land in Sy.Nos.688/1,2 of Elmkulam Village belonged to a joint family of the four petitioners and fifteen others, including some minors. The family got disrupted in status by virtue of the Kerala Joint Hindu Family System (Abolition) Act, 1975 (Act 30 of 1976). The parties orally partitioned the property thereafter by metes and bounds on 30-1-1983, which they recorded in a written instrument dated 24-12-1983, namely Ext. P1. This document contains details of the specific portions of the property allotted to each of the nineteen members in the oral partition.

2. The members of the family decided to put up a series of shop rooms in the property, for which they obtained a loan from the Nedungadi Bank Ltd., Ernakulam. Since there were minors among the parties, permission of the District Court, Ernakulam was sought for and obtained, for giving the property allotted to them as security to the Bank, as per petitions, Guardian O.P.Nos.133 to 136 of 1983. The building was put up with the fund so obtained from the Bank, and as per sanction accorded by the Corporation of Kochi. The Corporation has registered the shop rooms standing on the properly of each of the owners separately, in the names of the respective owners, nineteen in number. Copies of the separate property tax assessment notices have been marked as Ext. P2 series. The aggregate of the annual value of all the shop rooms fixed by the Corporation of Kochi is Rs. 4,14,800/-.

3. The owners of the respective portions of the building, which, as stated earlier, stood on land allotted to each in partition, filed separate returns for purposes of assessment under the Kerala Building Tax Act, 1975 (the act). But the 'assessing authority, namely the first respondent, completed an assessment treating all the shop rooms comprised in the building as a single unit on a capital value of Rs. 70,59,120/-, and demanded an amount of Rs. 6,79,662/- as tax thereon. The basis of arriving at the capital value at the aforesaid amount is not disclosed in the order of assessment Ext. P3; but it is evident that the assessment was made under S.6(2) of the Act, in as much as the capital value of Rs. 70,59,120/- fixed in Ext. P3 is far in excess of the capital value of Rs. 41,48,000/- as per the fixation of annual value by the Corporation of Kochi. How the capital value got enhanced to Rs. 70,59,120/- is not disclosed in Ext. P3. The petitioners and the other owners challenged the consolidated assessment before the second respondent appellate authority raising inter alia contentions regarding the capital value of the building as also about the validity of the consolidated assessment made on them. But this appeal was dismissed by the second respondent by the order Ext. P6. The revision petition filed therefrom before the third respondent under S.13 of the Act was heard by the then District Collector on 14-8-1991, but the order Ext. P7 dismissing the revision petition was passed by his successor in office on 17-9-1991 without any further hearing of the matter. Petitioners are before this court with a challenge to Exts. P3, P6 and P7.

4. Even in the first instance, I may state that the order Ext. P7 is void as one passed in violation of the principles of natural justice as it has been passed by an officer who did not hear the revision petition. It is clear from Ext. P7 itself that the hearing was done by the then incumbent in office on 14-8-1991, but the order Ext. P7 was passed by the successor on 1V-9-1991. The person who heard the revision on 14-8-1991 has not passed the order, though from what appears in Ext. P7, he had made some notes of hearing in the note file. These notes were utilised by the successor and made into an order which he pronounced as Ext. P7. Admittedly there was no further hearing of the matter. In the circumstances the order passed by a person who did not hear the matter and who did not have any opportunity to come to grips with the issues arising for considerati