Municipal Council, Raghogarh . vs National Fertilizer Ltd. .

3. Both the contesting respondents in these appeals were allotted forest lands within the municipal limits of the appellant Council. Subsequently, the respondents were served with a notice calling upon them to deposit external development charges @ Rs.5/- per sq. meter in consonance with Government of Madhya Pradesh, Housing and Environment Department, Notification No. F.3-39/32/85, dated 28-11-1985. Raising objections, respondents challenged the notices by filing Civil Suits before the District Judge, Guna, Madhya Pradesh contending that they are Central Government entities and would not come under the purview of the said Notification and hence sought declaration and permanent injunction restraining the appellant from demanding external 3 development fee from them.

5. Against the said judgment of the District Judge, the appellant moved the High Court by way of First Appeals challenging the decree that the Suit has been filed before expiry of period of notice under Section 80, CPC and no Suit is maintainable against the Municipal Council without notice under Section 319 of the Municipalities Act. The other stand taken by the appellant was that since the plaintiffs are avoiding recovery of external development fee, therefore, without payment of ad valorem court fee suit ought to have been dismissed or the trial Court should have rejected the plaint for insufficient payment of court fee.

8. The High Court, after considering the matter on merits, by the judgment impugned herein, formed the opinion that the trial Court did not commit any error in declaring that the appellant Municipal Council had no authority under law to charge external development cost and thereby affirmed the judgment of the trial Court and dismissed the appeals of the Municipal Council. Aggrieved thereby, the said Municipal Council is in appeal before us.

9. The case put forward on behalf of the appellant Municipal Council is that it is a statutory body providing various amenities and necessities to the general public residing in its area limits. Relying on Order No.F./3-39/32/85 dated 28-11-1983 of Housing and Environment Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, it is stated that the areas where there is a Municipal Committee or Municipal Corporation, the internal development work of colonies by House Construction Societies and individual persons will be done in supervision of respective Municipal Committee or Municipal Corporation. For that all the activities pertaining to maintenance, 6 civil amenities, development work and construction require heavy expenditure. About Rs.5 lakhs per month is the electricity bill to maintain the streetlights and to run pump houses. Nearly Rs.25 lakhs per annum are the vehicle maintenance charges, Rs.50 lakhs for supply of water and pipeline maintenance and about Rs.25 lakhs for sanitation and Rs.2 crores per year is required for maintenance, construction and development of roads. In view thereof, in accordance with the prevailing rules, the externational development fee @ Rs.5/- per. Sq.m. has been legally charged on the contesting respondents and they are liable to make payment. But, unfortunately the trial Court committed legal error and declared that the defendants (appellant and proforma respondents herein) jointly or severally have no right to recover amount by name of external development fee from the plaintiffs (respondents herein) and the same view has been affirmed by the High Court. The entire development activity in the Municipality, Rahograh has come to standstill and it is therefore necessary for this Court to set aside the impugned judgment.

13. For all the aforementioned reasons we do not see any error in the impugned judgment. In our opinion, the trial Court as well as the High Court considered all the relevant issues in their 9 true spirit and came to the right conclusion that the contesting respondents are not liable to pay any amount in the form of external development fee as demanded by the appellants. The appeals fail and therefore stand dismissed devoid of merit without any order as to costs.