Shah, J. - (1.) The High Court of Bombay dismissed in limine a petition filed by the Century Spinning and Manufacturing Co. Ltd - hereinafter called 'the Company' - for the issue of a writ restraining the respondent Municipality from enforcing the provisions of the Maharashtra Municipalities Act 40 of 1965 relating to the levy, assessment, collection, recovery of octroi and in particular Section 105 and Sections 136 to 144 thereof, and from enforcing the Maharashtra Municipalities (Octroi) Rules, 1967, and from acting upon resolutions passed by the Municipal Council dated September 9, 1968 and September 13, 1968, and from levying, assessing, collecting, recovering or taking any other step under the Act, rules or the resolutions, and for an order restraining the Municipality of Ulhasnagar from levying, assessing, collecting any octroi on the goods imported by the Company within the limits of the Municipal Council for a period of seven years from the date of its first imposition. With special leave, the Company has appealed against the order rejecting the petition.
(2.) The Company was incorporated under the Indian Companies Act, 1913. It set up its factory in 1956, within the limits of village Shahad, Taluka Kalyan, on a site purchased from the State of Bombay, and within an area known as the 'Industrial Area'. No octroi duty was then payable in respect of goods imported by the Company into the Industrial Area for use in the manufacture of its products. On October 30, 1959, the Government of Bombay issued a notification announcing its intention to constitute a Municipality for certain villages, including the Industrial Area. The Company and other manufacturers who had set up their plants and factories objected to the proposed constitution of Municipal area. On September 20, 1960, the State of Maharashtra (successor to the State of Bombay) published a notification constituting with effect from April 1, 1960 the Municipality including the area in which the Industrial Area was included. Representations were then made by the Company and other manufacturers for excluding the Industrial Area from the Ulhasnagar Municipal District Area. On April 27, 1962 the Government of Maharashtra (the new State of Maharashtra having been constituted under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, l960) proclaimed that the Industrial Area be excluded from the Municipal jurisdiction. The District Municipality then made a representation to the Government of Maharashtra that the proclamation dated April 27, 1962, be withdrawn by the Government, The Municipality agreed to exempt the existing factories, viz., the Company and other manufacturers whose factories were then existing in the Industrial Area from payment of octroi for a period of seven years from the date of levy of octroi and for exempting new industrial units from payment of octroi for a similar period from the date of establishment. The Government of Maharashtra acceded to the request of the Municipality to retain the Industrial Area within the local limits of the Municipality.
(3.) On August 24, 1963, the District Municipality passed a resolution to implement the agreement. It was resolved that the Municipality "agrees to give a, concession to the existing factories by exempting them from the payment of octroi for a period of 7 years from the date of levy of octroi tax and by exempting new factories from the payment of the octroi tax for a period of 7 years from the date of their establishment as recommended by the Government of Maharashtra".;