Point of Law: Exemption from property tax - Buildings which are used for purposes referred to in various sub-sections to section 235 only, are entitled to exemption.

JUDGMENT :

Petitioner is a trust, having registration No.402, allegedly registered with the office of the Sub Registry, Ernakulam. The said trust is the owner of buildings bearing Nos.CC 14/143A, 14/143B (U/A) & 14/143C (U/A) within the limits of the Corporation of Kochi – the 1st respondent. Admittedly two of the buildings specified above are unauthorised constructions and that's why the buildings are numbered as 'UA' in accordance with the requirement under Section 242 of the Kerala Municipality Act 1994. According to the petitioner, among the said buildings, building bearing No.CC 14/143A was given exemption from the payment of property tax by the Corporation of Kochi from 24.8.1990 onwards. The case projected by the petitioner is that the trust is working for the betterment of the lower strata of the society and it was taking into account the said aspect that exemption from payment of property tax to the building was given to the trust.

2. While so, a complaint was filed by one Prabhakaran before the Regional Joint Director of Municipalities, Kochi against the property tax exemption granted to the building of the petitioner trust. It is the contention of the petitioner that the said person approached the petitioner trust and sought for Rs.1,50,000/- to compromise the said matter and when the petitioner refused to budge to the demand made by the said person, he filed the complaint before the authority. Thereafter, a letter was received by the petitioner from the Corporation of Kochi informing that the exemption granted to the buildings of the trust is proposed to be cancelled. Thereupon, the trust filed a petition before the Corporation requesting to review the order cancelling exemption granted to the trust.

3. It is also pointed out that thereafter, the Finance Standing Committee of the Corporation held its meeting on 23.9.2010 and considered the request for reviewing the order cancelling the property tax exemption of petitioner's buildings. It is submitted that the Standing Committee decided to continue the property tax exemption and the said decision was communicated to the petitioner's office bearers then and there and thereafter, the property tax exemption continued upto 24.8.2011. However, as per a letter dated 24.8.2011, it was informed that the review petition filed by the petitioner trust before the Finance Standing Committee is rejected and it was decided not to give property tax exemption to the buildings of the petitioner and directed to pay the property tax for the buildings from 1.4.1990.

4. According to the petitioner, thereafter, a copy of the order was secured under the Right to Information Act and found that the order of the Finance Standing Committee was falsely corrected by some interested parties/Corporation employees making it appear that no decision was taken in the said meeting held on 23.9.2010 so as to make it appear that the matter was adjourned to another day. Other allegations are made with respect to the agenda prepared in the Standing Committee Meeting, etc.

5. Anyhow, it is submitted that , pointing about the above said alleged illegal aspects, petitioner had filed a petition before the Corporation of Kochi to consider the above facts and take a decision, which is produced as Exhibit P1, however, no action was taken and being aggrieved, petitioner has filed W.P.(C) No.15551/2012 and secured Exhibit P2 judgment, whereby a direction was issued to the Corporation of Kochi to consider the representation and take a decision.

6. The case projected by the petitioner is that thereafter, petitioner has received a demand notice from the Corporation of Kochi requiring the petitioner to pay the property tax of the building bearing No.14/143A for an amount of Rs.4,55,015/- for the period 1990-1991 to 2013-2014. Yet two other demand notices were received for building No.14/143B (U/A) for the period 2013-2014 and building bearing No.14/143C (U/A) for the period 2007-2008 to 2013-2014 and they have been produced