Mootham, C.J. - (1.) THIS is an appeal from an order of a learned single Judge dated the 7th January, 1955, dismissing a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.
(2.) THE Appellants are inhabitants of the Municipality of Gorakhpur. The Gorakhpur Municipal Board was superseded some years ago and an Administrator was appointed by the Provincial Government to manage the affairs of the Board. A house tax was imposed by the Administrator with effect from the 1st October, 1950, and the Appellants challenge the validity of that tax. They contend that the first intimation they had that the tax had in fact been imposed was the receipt of a demand early in 1953 for the payment of tax for the preceding two and a half years, and they filed the petition out of which this appeal arises on the 24th April, 1953. The petition was dismissed on the ground that there had been a substantial compliance with the provisions of the United Provinces Municipalities Act, 1916, regulating the procedure to be followed when a tax was imposed. This procedure is laid down in Sections 131 to 135 of the Act. It is a somewhat complicated procedure and it seems desirable to restate the salient features. It must first however be stated that it is common ground in the present case that at all, material times Gorakhpur was not a "city" within the meaning of the Municipalities Act, that the "prescribed authority" was the Commissioner, and that the State Government had delegated to the Commissioner its powers Under Section 296 to make rules under Clauses (a), (b) and (c) of Section 153.
(3.) SECTIONS 131 to 135 require that (a) the Board must first by a special resolution frame proposals specifying the nature of the tax, the persons to be made liable and such other particulars as are mentioned in Sub -section (1) of Section 131. (b) The Board must also prepare a draft of the rules which it desires the State Government to make with regard to the assessment and collection of the tax and other matters referred to in Section 153 [Section 131(2)]. (c) The Board must then publish the proposals which it has framed, and the draft rules which it desires the State Government to make, in the form prescribed in Schedule III to the Act. The object of publication is to afford the inhabitants of the Municipality an opportunity of objecting to the proposals and the draft rules, and notice has to be published in the manner laid down in Section 94 [Section 131(3)]. (d) The Board has then to take into consideration any objections which are submitted, and if it modifies its proposals it must republish them and, if necessary, revise draft rules, and again invite objection's. When the proposals are finally settled the Board must submit then together with the objections, if any, to the Commissioner (Section 132). (e) The Commissioner may then either refuse to sanction the proposals or section them with or without modification provided there is no increase in the amount of tax to be imposed [Section 133(1)]. (f) After the proposals have been sanctioned it becomes the duty of the State Government to take into consideration the draft rules framed by the Board, and to make, Under Section 296 of the Act, such rules in respect of the tax as it considers necessary [Section 134(1)]. (g) When the State Government has made the necessary rules, the order of the Commissioner sanctioning the proposals, and a copy of the rules, must be sent to the Board and the latter shall then by a special resolution direct the imposition of the tax from a date to be specified in the resolution [Section 134(2)]. (h) A copy of the last mentioned resolution has then to be forwarded to the Commissioner who is required to notify in the official Gazette the imposition of the tax from the appointed date. Such notification is an essential condition to the imposition of the tax and it is also conclusive proof that the tax has been imposed in accordance with the provisions of the Act (Section 135).;