In Perspective:

A Trust runs a nursing college; college buildings are exempted from building tax. But the college paid the tax in the previous year. In the next year, it objected to the Grama Panchayat's demand. In response, the Grama Panchayat has initiated coercive steps to realize the building tax. Aggrieved, the college assails the Grama Panchayat's action. These issues arise: 1. Has the whole building been exempted or only a part of it directly connected with `educational purpose'; 2. Has the college been estopped from questioning the Grama Panchayat's action for it paid the tax in the previous year; 3. Has the petitioner acquiesced in the Grama Panchayat's demand for tax? None of these issues, I hold, sustains itself against the petitioner.

Brief Facts:

2. The petitioner is the Manager of a Nursing College run by an Educational Trust. The third respondent is the Grama Panchayath in the territorial limits of which the petitioner's College is situated. In the course of time, the Grama Panchayath issued Ext.P5 revenue-recovery demand notice insisting that the petitioner should pay Rs. 1,53,411/- as building tax for the year 2009-2010. Aggrieved, the petitioner filed this