Case: Tata Iron &amp; Steel Co.Ltd Vs. State Of West Bengal

2. The learned Single Judge of the High Court, who examined the matter in the first instance, rejected all the contentions put forth on behalf of the appellants and declared that the Act was a valid piece of legislation, except in regard to Section 25(2) of the Act which was held to be ultra vires and, therefore, the said Section was declared to be invalid. Against this order appeals were preferred to the Division Bench and the Division Bench affirmed the order made by the learned Single Judge and dismissed the appeals. Hence, these appeals by special leave.

Reasoning: The expression owner, if read along with Section 3 and Section 5 of the Act, will cover the multi-storeyed building and though for the purpose of taxation different units of the buildings are taken into consideration, the taxation is on the entire building. Therefore, the argument that the unit of assessment changes from the entire multi-storeyed building to individual units occupied by deemed owner or occupier cannot be accepted. The argument that the taxation being on the covered space of a portion whether he be the owner or the occupier in respect of a portion of a building would not be a relevant factor if multi-storeyed building is brought to tax, but we do not think this position is correct. The levy is upon the multi-storeyed building is clear from the provisions of Section 3 of the Act, but if the distribution of the levy is made upon the owners and in some cases upon the occupiers it will not change the purpose of the Act to levy a tax on the multi-storeyed building by reason of the fact that tax is levied on such occupied or covered area in the the multi-storeyed building which is in possession of the owner or the occupier. This kind of classification has been not un-from the fact that somewhere limit has to be drawn between different types of buildings and if Legislature thinks five floors and above should be subject to tax, no fault can be found with it. It cannot be said that those who live in these kinds of buildings which are subject to taxation upto fourth floor are similar to those who live in the buildings having less than five floors because it appears from the provisions of the Municipal Corporation Act and bye-laws thereto certain special amenities have to be provided in the buildings having five floors or more, as noticed by the High Court, Hence, this contention is rejected.13. We do not find that there is any substance in the contention based on discrimination between two sets of buildings nor are we impressed with the other argument that there is discrimination because of want of appropriate relationship or nexus between the nature of levy and the classification of the building made under the Act.