-: 1 :- IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY APPELLATE SIDE WRIT PETITION NO.6142 OF 2008 Shri Suresh Limbaji Waghmare : Petitioner V/s. Thane Municipal Corporation & Anr. : Respondents ... Mr.Ambar Joshi for the petitioner. Mr.N.R.Bubna for the respondents. ... CORAM : S.A. BOBDE, J. DATE : JANUARY 12, 2009. P.C. 1. The petitioner has challenged the order of the learned Industrial Court, Thane, dismissing his complaint under item nos.9 and 10 of Schedule IV of the MRTU & PULP Act, 1971. 2. The respondent -Thane Municipal Corporation issued a notice to the petitioner calling upon him to show cause why the collection of property tax in ward no.9 upto 2003 was only to the extent of 5.66% of the recovery and why the petitioner ought not to be treated as having failed to discharge his duty when he was expected to recover 90% of the target. The petitioner did not reply to the show cause notice within the period of seven days as provided -: 2 :- by the notice. 3. The petitioner allowed the matter to proceed without any reply or application for time to file reply till the Corporation passed the order of punishment of withholding one yearly increment on 31.1.2004. After the order of punishment was passed, the petitioner filed a reply on 4.2.2004. 4. In spite of his own negligence and lapse of not filing a reply, the petitioner complained of breach of the principles of natural justice before the Industrial Court. The Industrial Court has dismissed his complaint. 5. Before this Court, the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that there is a breach of the principles of natural justice at the hands of the Municipal Corporation and, in fact, the petitioner would have been able to demonstrate that recovery was not possible according to the target because one of the major tax paying units in the area had closed down and its properties were in the hands of the Court Receiver of this Court. Therefore, the impugned order is liable to be interfered with. I have gone through the impugned order and I am of view that the grievance regarding violation of the principles of natural justice has been rightly -: 3 :- rejected by the learned Industrial Court since obviously the petitioner himself did not file a reply to the show cause notice in time and chose to file it only after the order was passed by the Municipal Commissioner. 6. The learned Industrial Court has nonetheless gone into the explanation tendered by the petitioner for failure to recover the taxes in some detail after recording evidence. The Industrial Court came to the conclusion that the petitioner has not collected taxes as per the order issued by his superiors regarding recovery of taxes; that he failed to fulfil the target by failing to use all legal remedies for which powers were entrusted to him. The Industrial Court has also observed that the petitioner has not demonstrated what steps he has taken for achieving the target nor has the petitioner produced any record of any legal action taken by him against the defaulters for payment of property tax. Apparently, the petitioner has not moved his superiors for taking any action against the defaulters either. 7. In this view of the matter, the order of the learned Industrial Court does not suffer from any error of law apparent from the record. Writ Petition is hereby dismissed. -: 4 :- S.A. BOBDE, J.