SOUTH DELHI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION & ANR. versus M/S. TODAY HOMES AND INFRASTRUCTURE PVT. LTD. ETC.

Citation: [2019] 10 S.C.R. 707 · Decided: 19-08-2019 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: L. NAGESWARA RAO · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed

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Judgment (excerpt)

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707
SOUTH DELHI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION & ANR.
v.
M/s. TODAY HOMES AND INFRASTRUCTURE PVT. LTD.
ETC.
(Civil Appeal No. 6377-6378 of 2019)
AUGUST 19, 2019
[L. NAGESWARA RAO AND  HEMANT GUPTA, JJ.]
Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957: Maintainability of
civil suits in disputes pertaining to payment of tax under the Act –
Held: Wherever a right or liability, not pre-existing in common law
is created by a statute and that statute itself provides a machinery
for enforcement of such right or liability, both the right/liability
and the remedy having been created uno flatu and a finality is
intended to the result of the statutory proceedings, then, even in the
absence of an exclusionary provision the jurisdiction of the civil
court is impliedly barred – Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957
creates a liability for payment of tax – There is no pre-existing liability
of tax under Common Law – Further, a remedy by way of an appeal
against an order of assessment, before an appropriate forum or
authority, is also provided by the same statute – Necessarily, where
a party aggrieved by the decision of the authorities has to resort to
the remedy provided under the Statute, civil courts’ jurisdiction is
barred – S.171 gives finality to the orders passed by Municipal
Taxation Tribunal, which shows the intendment of the legislature to
exclude jurisdiction of civil courts –  Jurisdiction – Code of Civil
Procedure, 1908 – S.9.
Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957: Jurisdiction of civil
courts, where exercisable – Held: The civil courts shall have
jurisdiction to examine a matter in which there is an allegation of
non-compliance of the provisions of the statute or any of the
fundamental principles of judicial procedure – No jurisdictional
error pleaded in the plaint.
Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957: Onerous remedy
provided in the Act – Remedy provided by a statute not being
adequate or efficacious remedy, is not a ground for maintaining a
civil suit – However, Writ Petition under Article 226 is maintainable.
   [2019] 10 S.C.R. 707
707
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708
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2019] 10 S.C.R.
Allowing the appeals, the Court
HELD : 1. Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
confers jurisdiction on the Civil Courts to try all suits, excepting
those which are either expressly or impliedly barred.  Chapter
VIII of the Act deals with levy of taxes that can be imposed by
the Corporation.  Property tax is dealt with in Sections 114 to
Section 135 of the Act.  There is an inherent right to approach a
civil court.  The bar on a civil court’s jurisdiction is not to be
readily or lightly inferred. The jurisdiction of civil courts can be
excluded by an express provision of law or a clear intendment in
such law.  A perusal of the relevant provisions of the Act would
show that there is no express bar on the jurisdiction of Courts.
However, Section 169 of the Act provides for an appeal to the
Municipal Taxation Tribunal.  Section 171 of the Act provides
that the order of the Municipal Taxation Tribunal in the appeal
filed by the Assessee shall be final.  According to the Corporation,
these Sections, read together, create a bar on the jurisdiction of
civil courts. [Paras 5, 6, 9] [712-C; 714-G; 717-C]
Dhulabhai and Ors. v. The State of Madhya Pradesh
and Anr. [1968] 3 SCR 662 – relied on.
Secretary of State v. Mask AIR 1940 PC 105  – referred
to.
Wolverhampton New Waterworks Co. v. Hawkesford
[1859] 6 C. B. (NS) 336 – referred to.
2.  Any person having a grievance that he had been wronged
or his right has been affected can approach a civil court on the
principle of ‘ubi jus ibi remedium’ - where there is a right, there
is a remedy. As no internal remedy had been provided in different
statutes creating rights or liabilities, the ordinary civil courts had
to examine the grievances in the light of those statutes. With the
advent of a ‘Welfare State’, it was realised that enactments creating
liabilities in respect of payment of taxes, obligations after vesting
of estates and conferring rights on a class of citizens, should be
complete codes by themselves. With that object in view, forums
were created under the Acts themselves where grievances could
be entertained on behalf of the persons aggrieved. [Para 10]
[717-D-F]
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709
3. As to various issues on the correctness of a return itself,
or whether or not a return is correct; whether or not transactions
which are not mentioned in the return, but about which the
appro

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