A.N Varma, J.:— The petitioner is challenging the right of the respondent— Town Area Committee to realise Tahbazari from the shopkeepers, who are carrying on business on road patri vesting in the Town Area Committee. The short ground on which the levy is challenged is that the Town Area has not made any bye-laws or otherwise imposed Tahbazari as contemplated by Section 15-A of the U.P Town Areas Act, 1914 and consequently, it cannot levy the same.
2. A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondent Town Area in which the levy is sought to be supported on the ground that prior to Abolition of Zamindari Tahbazari was being realised in respect of this market by the erstwhile Zamindars.
3. Upon abolition of Zamindari under the U.P Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1951 that right stood vested in the State Government which in its turn transferred it to the District Boards of the Areas in question. Subsequently the Town Area Committee Shoharatgarh, Siddharth Nagar came to be established on 2-2-1970 whereupon the Town Area Committee continued to realise Tahbazari in the same way as it was being done by the District Board and, before that, by the Zamindars. A perusal of the counter affidavit, however, seems to concede that the Town Area itself did not impose Tahbazari in accordance with procedure prescribed by Section 15-A of the Uttar Pradesh Town Areas Act.
4. Learned counsel for the Town Area Committee, however, submitted that the procedure contemplated under Section 15-A of the said Act is confined only to imposition of a tax and not fee. We are unable to agree. Section 14 of the U.P Town Areas Act provides for imposition of various taxes and fees mentioned therein. Sub-section (2) of that provision lays down:
“The Committee may also impose the following taxes and fee:
(a) Fees for licensing hackney carriages.
(b) Tahbazari leviable for the use of public land or public roads.
(c) Fees for licensing carts.
(d) Fees for licensing palledars.”
5. It would thus appear that the terms “taxes and fees” have been used broad and generic sense as including Tahbazari also. We do not agree with the learned counsel for the Town Area Committee that any distinction has been drawn between taxes and fees in strict and technical sense in so far as the items mentioned in sub-section (2) of Section 14 are concerned. These terms are in our opinion wide enough to include Tahbazari. As mentioned above, the expression “Taxes and Fees” has been used in a broad sense and in any case it specifically includes Tahbazari under clause (b) of Section 14(2).
6. Section 15-A of the same Act makes the position further clear. It lays down the procedure for imposition of “taxes.” It states “subject to any rules made in this behalf by the State Government, the Committee, established for any town area, shall, by resolution frame proposals specifying—
(a) the tax, being one of the taxes described in Section 14, which it desires to impose.”
7. We have not the least doubt that the term “taxes”, in the context in which it appears, has been used in a comprehensive sense so as to include all imports enumerated in Section 14. Tahbazari being one of the taxes listed in Section 14 would thus clearly be covered by Section 15-A. A combined reading of Sections 14 and 15-A therefore leads irresistibly to the conclusion that the procedure laid down under Section 15-A of the Town Areas Act would be equally applicable to the imposition of Tahbazari.
8. Having cleared the legal position we revert to the facts. It is not disputed by the learned counsel for the Town Area Committee that the respondent Town Area Committee did not undertake the exercise of imposing tahbazari as prescribed by Section 15-A. It rested on the simple fact that the tax was being previously realised by the erstwhile District Board and before it by the Zamindars. That in our opinion, would not clothe the Town Area Committee with the authority to continue to levy Tahbazari. It must impose the same in accordance with law and procedure laid down under Section 15-A of the Act before it can claim to realise it.
9. In the premise, the petition succeeds and is allowed. The respondent Town Area Committe is restrained from realising Tahbazari from the shopkeepers doing business on the disputed road patri until the respondent Town Area Committee imposes Tahbazari in accordance with law There shall, however, be no order as to costs.
10. Petition allowed.
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