Nainar Sundaram, J.

1. The petitioner is a Bill Collector of the respondent. He is being penalised and is being called upon to pay the profession taxes, on the ground, he allowed their collection and recovery from the tax payers to become time-barred. The view of this Court with regard to liability of the Bill Collector of a Municipality to recoup it on the allegation of his failure to collect the taxes and allowing them to become time barred, has been expressed by Mohan, J., in A. Selvaraj and Ors. v. The Commissioner, Tiruvarur Municipality W. Ps. 3364 to 3369 of 1976, order dt. 23.11.1976, saying:

Having regard to these provisions, I find it rather impossible to appreciate the stand of the Municipality as to how a Bill Collector could cause pecuniary loss to the Municipality by his failure to collect the taxes. Firstly, it does not lie within his powers to allow the recovery of taxes to become time-barred. The very elaborate procedure relating to collection of taxes mentioned in paragraph 65 of Municipal Volume I would clearly indicate that it is the duty of the Executive Officer to have periodic verification of the arrears. If he had failed to do the duty and thereby the arr