SUBBA RAO J.

This is an application for the issue of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to forbear from distraining and selling the petitioner's property for recovery of arrears of incometax The petitioner was one of the partners of the United Construction Company, Rajahmundry, who took a contract job No. 539 of the aerodrome works of Madhurapudi for execution. The contract work commenced in October, 1942, and was completed by December, 1943. On 20th March, 1950, the petitioner received a communication from the Income-tax Officer, Special North Circle, Madras, calling upon him to pay a sum of Rs. 16,444-3-0 being his share of income-tax, excess profits tax and compulsory deposit, and he duly paid the same. He received another notice from the Income-tax Officer, Rajahmundry, demanding him to pay a sum of Rs. 39,807-3-0 being the unpaid tax payable by the other partners. On 19th April, 1951, he received a notice from the Tahsildar of Madras threatening to distrain and sell the properties of the petitioner if the said amount was not paid forth with. The petitioner's case is that the Collector of East Godavari district in which the alleged arrears of income-tax accrued has no jurisdiction to send to the Collector of Madras a requisition for collecting tax from the properties situate in Madras. On that contention he seeks for the issue of the aforesaid writ of mandamus

The provisions of the Revenue Recovery Act (Act I of 1890) govern the situation. The relevant provisions are Sections 3 and 5 of the Act : ---

" Where an arrear of land-revenue, or a sum recoverable as an arrear of land-revenue, is payable to a Collector by a defaulter being or having property in a district other than that in which the arrear accrued or the sum is payable, the Collector may send to the Collector of that other district a certificate in the form as nearly as may be of the schedule, stating ---(a) the name of the defaulter and such other particulars as may be necessary for his identification, and

(b) the amount payable by him and the account on which it is due

(3) The Collector of the other district shall, on receiving the certificate, proceed to recover the amount stated therein as if it were an arrear of land-revenue which had accrued in his own district."

" Section 5 : ---Where any sum is recoverable as an arrear of land-revenue by any public officer other than a Collector or by any local authority, the Collector of the district in which the office of that officer or authority is situate shall, on the request of the officer or authority, proceed to recover the sum as if it were an arrear of land-revenue which has accrued in his own district, and may send a certificate of the amount to be recovered to the Collector of another district under the foregoing provisions of this Act, as if the sum were payable to himself. "

Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that arrears of income-tax is neither payable to the Collector nor recoverable by the Income-tax Officer and therefore neither Section 3 nor Section 5 of the Revenue Recovery Act (Act I of 1890) would apply to the case. Under Section 3 where an arrear of land-revenue or a sum recoverable as an attear of land-revenue is payable to a Collector he may send to the Collector of that other district a certificate in the form prescribed where the defaulter's property is situate. Section 3 applies only to cases where the land-revenue or sum recoverable as land-revenue is payable to the Collector. To ascertain the meaning of the word " payable " the material provisions of the Madras Revenue Recovery Act may be noticed. In Section 1 it is stated thus : ---

"Public revenue due on land shall, for the purposes of this Act, be taken to include cesses or other dues payable to Government on account of water supplied for irrigation."Section 3 reads as follows : ---

"Every landholder shall pay to the Collector, or other officer empowered by him to receive, the revenue due upon his land on or before