STATE OF HARYANA Vs. MOHANLAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Punjab accepting the petition filed by the rate-payers of Municipality Committee, Rohtak, Respondents before us, and ordering that the State Government shall not proceed with the constitution of the Rohtak Improvement Trust under the notification of August 30, 1961. The High Court allowed the petition because it held (1) that sub-section (3) of Sec. 1 of the Punjab Town Improvement Act (Punjab Act IV of 1922) - hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' - only envisages the creation of a Trust in a Municipal area where a Committee is functioning and so is in a position to hold a special meeting to decide whether or not it considers the creation of trust desirable, and (2) that once a trust ceases to exist under Section 103 (1) of the Act in order to create a trust, the Act has to be applied again, and as the Municipality Committee had at a special meeting held on November 9, 1962, decided unanimously that the Act should not be applied the Government was bound to give effect to that decision.

(2.) The learned counsel for the appellant, Mr. Sachthey, contends that the High Court has placed a wrong interpretation on the two provisions mentioned above and somehow Section 4-A of the Act was not noticed by the High Court.

(3.) Before we deal with the interpretation of the provisions mentioned above, it is necessary to state a few facts. The Rohtak Municipal Committee was superseded on August 2, 1954. The Government purported to extend the provisions of the Act to the whole of the area of the Municipality on May 21, 1958. The notification to this effect reads: