Rajnarain Singh Vs. The Chairman, Patna Administration Committee, Patna and Ors.

Facts

The appellant is the Secretary of the Rate Payers' Association at Patna. He and the other members of his Association reside in an area which was originally outside the municipal limits of Patna and was not liable to municipal and cognate taxation. Sometimes later this area was brought within municipal limits and was subjected to municipal taxation which was done by two notifications. By reason of this the appellant and the others whom he represents were called upon to pay taxes for a certain period. The notifications were issued under sections 3(1)(f) and 5 of the Patna Administration Act of 1915 (the Act). The appellant claims that the notifications are delegated legislation and so are bad and prays that sections 3(1)(f) and 5 of the Act which permitted this delegation be condemned as ultra vires.

The High Court of Patna granted the petitioner leave to appeal under Article 132(1) of the Constitution on the ground that a substantial question of law relating to the interpretation of the Constitution was involved.

Key Takeaways for Students

Legal Issue

Whether the notifications are delegated legislation and so are bad and sections 3(1)(f) and 5 of the Act which permitted this delegation are as ultra vires?

Holding

The Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act, 1922 applied to the whole of Bihar and Orissa and one of its essential features is that no municipality competent to tax shall be thrust upon a locality without giving its inhabitants a chance of being heard and of being given an opportunity to object. Sections 4, 5 and 6 afford a statutory guarantee to that effect. Therefore, the Local Government is under a statutory duty imposed by the Act in mandatory terms to listen to the objections and take them into consideration before reaching a decision.

After amendment of Section 3(1)(f) it empowers the delegated authority to pick any section it chooses out of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act of 1922 and extend it to "Patna", and second, it empowers the Local Government to apply it with such "restrictions and modifications" as it thinks fit. The notification does effect a radical change in the policy of the Act. Therefore, it travels beyond the authority which, in our judgment, section 3(1)(f) confers and consequently it is ultra vires. Therefore Section 3(1)(f) is intra vires provided always that the words "restriction" and "modification" are used in the restricted sense set out above and that the notification is ultra vires.

Final Decision Appeal Allowed