Bombay province vs Bombay municipal corporation.

This is a Letter Patent appeal arising from a suit which had been filed by the Borough
Municipality of Ahmedabad in respect of 60 1/2 square yards of public street land which had
vested in the Municipality as street land. It appears from the evidence that the Municipality
converted the piece of land by its incorporation in meat shops, and the Commissioner thereupon
assessed the land to payment of non-agricultural assessment and made an order that the amount
of assessment should be recovered. The Municipality filed the suit from which the appeal arises
challenging the assessment and contending that they were, as a matter of fact, not liable to pay
the assessment which had been imposed.

The learned Assistant Judge, who heard the first appeal, came to the conclusion that the decision
of the trial Judge that the land was liable to pay non-agricultural assessment under Section 45 of
the Land Revenue Code was a correct decision. The trial Judge had dismissed the suit holding
that Art. 14, Limitation Act, applied and the suit was barred by limitation. The learned Assistant
Judge did not go into that question; but he held that it was not necessary for him to go into the
question of limitation, because prior to his decision there had been a final decision in another
similar suit between the Borough Municipality of Ahmedabad on the one hand and the Provincial
Government of Bombay on the other holding that in a similar case where a piece of land 92
square yards in extent from another street had been converted to use as a fish market it was not
liable to pay non-agricultural assessment. The learned Assistant Judge came to the conclusion
that this decision barred the present suit by the doctrine of 'res judicata'. The order of the
Collector was consequently 'ultra vires'.

The full case will be further discussed and the researcher in the final project will do the a
detailed case analysis of the case.

Submitted by,

Lakkaraju Ashok Kumar

4th semester

2015063, Section A