VINOD K.SHARMA, J. - (1.) INDIAN Sucrose Limited, a company registered under the Companies Act, has challenged Notification No. 10/17/2001-4 L.G. (3)/8338 dated 13th of June 2005 issued after considering objections received from the affected persons and affording them opportunity of hearing, who were present in person and thereby the area of Municipal Council, Mukerian was extended. A copy of this notification is attached as Annexure P-5 to the writ petition. The petitioner has also challenged the preliminary Notification dated 10-6- 2002 and amended notification dated 14-11-2002 attached as Annexures P-1 and P-2 with the writ petition.
(2.) THE case set up by the petitioner is that by way of notifications under challenge huge tracts of agricultural land and the entire area of Gram Panchayat Chak Ala Baksh and a part of area of Gram Panchayat Village Madinpur thereby bringing within its ambit the entire factory of the petitioner have been included in the municipal limits. It is the further case of the petitioner that adjacent to the factory of the petitioner, there is another factory i.e. Paper Mill called the Mukerian Papers Limited, which was previously under the management of Oswal Group of Ludhiana along with the factory of the petitioner. The said factories are situated in the area of more than 150 acres and they collectively employed about 2000 workers and about 150 persons in management. It is averred in the writ petition that the factories have an extensive housing complex of about 125 houses within the factory premises for which arrangements have been made for collection of garbage, its disposal, water and sanitation etc. and therefore all municipal services have been provided by the factory itself. As such, it is entitled to be declared as an 'industrial township' under Article 243-Q of the Constitution of India and Section 4(1) of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'). It is also the case of the petitioner that in the present case the notifications did not disclose any reason whatsoever for the inclusion of purely agricultural area within the boundaries of the Municipal Council. It has also been pleaded by the counsel for the petitioner that the notifications under challenge do not give any reason whatsoever in extending the boundaries of the Municipal Council which were mandatory under the provisions of Section 4(1) of the Act. It is also contended that since the matter regarding extension of boundaries had lapsed, therefore, notifications could not be issued in 2005 after lapse of almost 3 years. Along with the challenge to the notifications, the petitioner has also challenged the vires of Section 83 of the Act as well as the agreement Annexure P-8 to be ultra vires to the Constitution of India on the ground that tax collection is a sovereign function of the State and therefore cannot be delegated to a private party. In the written statement filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 and 2, by a preliminary objection, it has been submitted that the Government is competent to include or exclude any area within or from Municipal limits and they also placed on record a copy of order dated 28-04-2005 passed by the Principal Secretary to Government, Punjab, Department of Local Government, vide which objections against the extension of Municipal area were considered and rejected and alterations of Municipal limtis of Municipal Council, Mukerian, Distt. Hoshiarpur were approved. The petitioner had not filed any objections.
(3.) A separate written statement was filed on behalf of respondent No. 3, wherein it has been stated that boundaries of the Municipal Council were extended due to growth of urbanization around the old/existing boundary/limit of the Municipal Council, Mukerian. The allegation of the petitioner that the copies of the notifications were not supplied to it, was specifically denied.;