BANERJEE, J. - (1.) This is an appeal against the order and judgement of the Ld. Trial Judge dt. June 9 and 11, 1982 by which he had upheld the validity of the West Bengal Multi-storied Building Tax Act, 1979 (West Bengal Act No, XXII of 1979 hereafter referred to as the said Act). This appeal along with other appeals in which the validity of the said Act was challenged were heard together and we by the judgement dt. May, 19, 1987 (reported in AIR 1987 Cal 372) passed in the case of Bagaria More and Co. Ltd. v. State of West Bengal, held that except in Section in respect of S.25(2) of the said Act all other contentions raised by the Petitioner were rightly rejected by the Ld. Trial Judge and we found that S.25(2) of the said Act is ultra vires. In this appeal the Appellant also challenged the notices of demands by which the Building Tax Officer of the Multi-storied Building Office demanded taxes for the periods 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78, 1978-79 and 1979-80 inter alia, on the grounds that the Building Tax Officer was in error in calculating the covered space and further it was also alleged that the said Building did not come under the purview of the said Act. Other grounds were also advanced on behalf of the Appellant to show that the said demands were illegal and bad in law. The question whether the said building was a Multi-storied building or not or whether the measurement in respect of covered space of the said building was correctly made or not are purely questions of fact which cannot be decided in this proceeding by this Court and that these are questions which could be properly decided on an appeal being filed under S.13 of the said Act before the Appellate Authority. Accordingly after hearing the parties considering facts and circumstances of this case we dispose of the appeal by the following terms :- (a) That the Appellant shall deposit the sum of Rs. 1 lakh with the Respondent No. 3 Building Tax Officer within a period of four weeks from today without prejudice to the rights and contention of the parties until the appeal is disposed of. (b) That the appellant shall prefer an appeal before the Appellate Authority in accordance with the provisions of S.13 of the said Act before the Appellate Authority within period of six weeks from today and if appeals are filed in terms of this order in that event that the Appellate Authority shall dispose of the appeal on its merits in accordance with the law after condoning the delay in filing the appeal. The appellant will be at liberty to take all the points raised in the writ application except what has been decided by this court in the case mentioned above and will also be at liberty to take any other points as will be avoidable to the appellant. (c) That the impugned demands in respect of tax under the said Act which are the subject matter of the appeal shall not be enforced by the respondent and that the Appellate Authority after hearing the appeal may pass any order on its merits and if any demand is raised in excess of the amount deposited in terms of the order the respondent shall be at liberty to raise the demand and realise the same in accordance with the law after adjustment, On the contrary if the Appeal is decided in favour of the Appellant and if it is ultimately then found by the Appellate Authority that the Appellant had no liability whatsoever in that event the respondent shall refund the said sum or any part thereof as the case may be. This order is passed without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties.
(2.) We may make it clear that we have not adjudicated any of the points raised in this appeal excepting what we have decided in the case of Bagaria More and Co. Ltd. v. State of West Bengal in F.M.A.T. of No. 2414 of 1982 decided on May 19, 1987 (reported in AIR 1987 Cal 372).
(3.) This appeal is thus disposed of.;