Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)Genius Consultants Limited & Anr vs New Town Kolkata Development Authority ... on 11 November, 2022Author:Amrita SinhaBench:Amrita SinhaSl. No.2\n11.11.2022\n Court No.24\n   B.M.\n                             In The High Court At Calcutta\n                            Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction\n                                    Appellate Side\n\n                            WPA 16042 of 2022\n\n                Genius Consultants Limited & Anr.\n                               v.\n          New Town Kolkata Development Authority & Ors.\n\n                      Mr. Arijit Bardhan\n                      Mr. Biswajib Ghosh\n                      Mr. Avirup Chatterjee\n                                                   ... for the petitioners.\n                      Mr. Abhratosh Majumdar, Sr. Adv.\n                      Mr. Chayan Gupta\n                      Mr. Sandip Dasgupta\n                      Mr. Saaqib Siddiqui\n                      Mr. Aviroop Mitra\n                                ... for the N.K.D.A/respondent nos.1 to 3The petitioner no.1 claims to be a Company\n\n               registered under theCompanies Act, 2013and the\n\n               petitioner      no.2    claims    to     be     the    authorised\n\n               representative of the petitioner no.1.The petitioner no.1 is the owner of two office\n\n               spaces at Synthesis Business Park under the New Town\n\n               Kolkata Development Authority.The submission of the petitioners is that the\n\n               petitioner no.1 paid property tax dues in respect of the\n\n               said property till the 4th quarter 2020-2021 but\n\n               thereafter stopped paying the property tax allegedly on\n\n               the ground of erroneous calculation of the property tax\n\n               bill   raised    in    respect   of    the    said    property.   A2representation was filed by the petitioner no.1 before\n\nthe Administrative Officer in February, 2022 and the\n\npetitioners allege that the said representation has not\n\nbeen taken up for consideration till date.The petitioner no. 1 applied for renewal of trade\n\nlicense on 25th May, 2022 but the same has not been\n\nrenewed allegedly on account of non-payment of the\n\nproperty tax.According to the petitioners, as the bills raised\n\nwere erroneous, the petitioners applied for revision of\n\nthe   same.     The   authority   failed   to   take   into\n\nconsideration the objection seeking revision and, as\n\nsuch, it was not possible for the petitioners to deposit\n\nthe current property tax.It has been contended that non-payment of\n\nproperty tax ought not to be a ground for not renewing\n\nthe certificate of enlistment. The representation filed by\n\nthe petitioners objecting to the non-renewal of the\n\ncertificate of enlistment is also pending consideration.The petitioners rely upon the provision ofSection\n\n36Aof the New Town Kolkata Development Authority\n\nAct, 2007 in support of the contention that the person\n\nengaged or intending to be engaged in any profession or\n\ntrade is not required to submit the clearance of\n\nproperty tax prior to either obtaining or renewing the\n\ncertificate of enlistment.3Provision of Section 36ZE has been placed before\n\nthis Court. It has been submitted that the authority\n\nhas the power to impose penalty for non-payment of\n\nproperty tax.The petitioners rely upon the judgment delivered\n\nby this Court in the matter ofLayeeque Ahmed Akhtar\n\nvs. State of West Bengal & Ors.reported in (2006 ) 1\n\nCHN 634, in respect of the contention that the\n\nmunicipal authority at the time of grant of certificate of\n\nenlistment is only required to consider as to whether\n\nthe person is engaged or is intending to be engaged in\n\nany profession, trade or calling in the municipal area.It has been submitted before this Court that the\n\nnature of the business of the petitioner is such that\n\nsame cannot be held up under any circumstances and\n\nthe petitioners are compelled to continue with the\n\nbusiness     despite   the    fact   that   the   certificate   of\n\nenlistment is pending renewal at the end of the\n\nauthority.Prayer has been made for a direction upon the\n\nMunicipal     Authority      to   renew     the   certificate   of\n\nenlistment without insisting upon the property tax\n\nreceipt.On behalf of the New Town Kolkata Development\n\nAuthority it has been submitted that, as per the New\n\nTown Kolkata Development Authority (Certificate of\n\nEnlistment of Profession, Trade & Calling) Regulations,42010, a person engaged or intending to be engaged in\n\nany profession, trade and calling is required to submit\n\nthe property tax receipt in respect of the place of\n\nbusiness.It has been pointed out that till the last renewal\n\nthe petitioners produced the property tax receipt at the\n\ntime   of   renewal of    the   certificate   of   enlistment.\n\nPresently, renewal could not be made as the petitioners\n\nfailed to submit the property tax receipt as required\n\nunder the aforesaid regulations.It has been contended that the petitioners never\n\nfiled any objection to the scheme that was published by\n\nthe authority and there is hardly any provision for\n\nrevision of the property tax at this stage.It has been submitted that erroneous calculation\n\nof property tax is not a ground for not paying the tax.According to the authority, the petitioner no.1 is\n\nobliged to produce the current property tax receipt for\n\nobtaining renewal of the certificate of enlistment.Upon hearing the submissions made on behalf of\n\nboth the parties and upon perusal of the materials on\n\nrecord, it is an admitted fact that the petitioner no.1\n\nstopped paying the property tax on and from the 1st\n\nquarter of the year 2021-2022.The petitioner is carrying on business even\n\nthough the certificate of enlistment has expired and the\n\nrenewal is pending.5At this stage without deciding the issue as to\n\nwhether payment of property tax will be a pre-condition\n\nfor renewal of the certificate of enlistment, the matter is\n\nremanded     to    the    Chairman,          New    Town     Kolkata\n\nDevelopment Authority to take a decision with regard to\n\nthe objection raised by the petitioners regarding\n\nerroneous calculation in the property tax bill.The Chairman is also directed to consider the\n\nrepresentation filed on behalf of the petitioners praying\n\nfor renewal of the Trade License.The    Chairman          shall    take    a   decision        upon\n\nconsideration of both the objections filed by the\n\npetitioners strictly in accordance with law, after giving\n\nreasonable opportunity of hearing to the representative\n\nof the petitioners and pass a reasoned order in the\n\nmatter at the earliest, but positively within a period of\n\nsix weeks from the date of communication of this order.\n\nThe aforesaid respondent shall pass a reasoned order\n\nand   communicate             the    same      to   the   petitioners\n\nimmediately thereafter.It is made clear that this Court has not entered\n\ninto the merits of the claim of the petitioners and all\n\npoints are left open to be decided by the aforesaid\n\nrespondent    at    the       time     of   consideration      of    the\n\nrepresentations.Learned advocate for the petitioners is directed to\n\nforward a copy of the representations dated 11 th6February, 2022 and 9th June, 2022 to the aforesaid\n\nrespondent at the time of communicating the order of\n\nthe Court.As     the   petitioners    is    continuing     with   the\n\nbusiness, accordingly, the petitioners is directed to\n\ndeposit with the Chairman the outstanding property tax\n\nin respect of the said property prior to consideration of\n\ntheir representations.The amount that is due and payable by the\n\npetitioners shall be calculated and intimated to the\n\npetitioners positively within a fortnight from date.The said amount shall be deposited with the\n\nChairman      without       prejudice   to   the     rights   and\n\ncontentions of the parties and the said amount will be\n\nduly adjusted by the Chairman against the property tax\n\nwhich will be adjudicated by the Chairman after\n\nconsideration of the objections filed by the petitioners.The Chairman shall also take a decision with\n\nregard to renewal of the certificate of enlistment which\n\nis kept pending for quite some time keeping in mind\n\nthat it will not be proper for the petitioners to run the\n\nbusiness without the license.The writ petition stands disposed of.\n\n      As the writ petition is being disposed of without\n\ncalling for affidavits, the allegations made in the writ\n\npetition are deemed not to have been admitted by the\n\nrespondents.7Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if\n\napplied for, be given to the parties on completion of\n\nusual formalities.( Amrita Sinha, J.)