ORDER.-The petitioner prays for a writ of mandamus ‘from this Court to restrain the respondents herein from levying, revising or collecting the property tax on the land and buildings belonging to the petitioners at No. 83, Big Street, Madras - 5 on the basis of its plinth area, contrary to the provisions of the Madras City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919.

2. The first respondent is the State of Tamil Nadu and the second respondent is the Corporation of Madras. According to the petitioner as soon as he came to know that the Corporation of Madras had proposed to revise the property tax leviable on the properties in the City of Madras adopting the plinth area as the basis, he wrote to respondents 1 and 2, as a rate-payer, as the representative of the City Cleaning Campaign, and as the Secretary of the Native Residents Association of the Madras City, pointing out that the Corporation has no jurisdiction to assess levy or collect property tax on the basis of the plinth area as it would tantamount to levying a tax on the property and not its rental value. The second respondent, however, without giving any reply to the said letter, proceeded to issue a circular purporting to be the guideli

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