S. Ramesh Kumar vs The Commissioner Corporation of Chennai

T.S. Sivagnanam, J.—The challenge in this writ petition is to a proceeding dated 24.1.2010, which is a distraint notice issued to the petitioner claiming arrears of property tax in respect of the property at No. 14, Krishna Iyer Lane, George Town, Chennai. According to the impugned notice, the petitioner is in arrears of property tax from the first half year of 1999-2000 onwards. The only ground on which the impugned proceedings have been challenged is that without issuing an order of assessment on the petitioner, straightaway, distraint action has been taken. In fact, after the impugned proceedings were issued, the petitioner submitted a representation dated 16.2.2010 stating that he is the legal heir of late Suganchand Jain in whose name the property was assessed to tax. In the representation, the petitioner has specifically stated that he has not received any notice for enhancement of tax and therefore requested the respondents to intimate the basis on which the said demand has been raised, that too on a dead person. Since there was no reply and the respondents were attempting to take coercive action, the petitioner has filed this writ petition.

At the time when the writ petition was entertained, an order of interim stay was granted on 25.4.2011, which continues to be in force till date. Further, no counter affidavit has been filed by the respondents. In the result, the writ petition is allowed, the impugned order is quashed and it is open to the respondents to issue a provisional notice clearly setting out the manner in which the property tax is sought to be revised and while doing so, the respondents should take note of the fact that the original person in whose name the property was assessed to tax is no more and therefore such demand should be issued to the legal heir(s) of the deceased owner. Consequently, M.P. No. 1 of 2011 is closed. No costs.