Harish Tandon, J. - (1.) This is the second round of litigation against the annual valuation fixed by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation with effect from Third Quarter 2007-2008 in relation to the premise no. 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata - 700 001. Prior to the instant Writ Petition, another Writ Petition being W.P. 462 of 2009 was filed before this Court challenging the consolidated rate bill on various grounds including that the assessment order passed by the hearing officer deciding the objection was never served on the petitioner, which is one of the statutory conditions provided under Section 188(3) of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980.
(2.) The Hon'ble Single Bench, while disposing of the said Writ Petition on 2nd April, 2015 observed that the bills annexed to the Writ Petition having raised without service of the copy of the order passed by the hearing officer is illegal and bad and therefore set aside. It was further observed that the said order shall not prevent the Corporation Authorities from raising bills for realization of the property tax on the Writ Petition in accordance with law.
(3.) The said order was challenged by the petitioner in Intra-Court Appeal being APO 198 of 2015. The Hon'ble Division Bench modified the order agreeing with the decision of the Hon'ble Single Bench whereby and whereunder the bills annexed to the Writ Petition were set aside and the subsequent bills raised on the basis of the purported assessment order was held to be un-interfered with. The Hon'ble Division Bench observed that if the bills annexed to the Writ Petition were found to be invalid because of non-service of the assessment order by the Corporation the subsequent bills based upon the same could not be held valid. The Division Bench set aside all subsequent bills, which were either annexed to the Writ Petition or subsequently raised upon the petitioner without touching the veracity, legality and validity of the assessment order. However, a leave was granted to the petitioner to challenge the assessment order in accordance with law as the subject matter of the writ was restricted on those bills without serving the copy of the assessment order.;