The Indian Express                        30.03.2013

HC says no sealing for house tax, MC says order ‘recently came to our notice’

Zones B and D continue with their sealing drive.

While the Punjab and Haryana High Court has clearly instructed the Municipal Corporation not to seal the buildings whose owners fail to pay house tax, the Ludhiana MC is least bothered about the orders as zones B and D are continuing with their sealing drive.

According to the MC headquarters record book, more than 160 properties have been sealed in March due to the failure to pay house tax, and all of them are in zones B and D.

While Neeraj Jain is house tax wing superintendent of Zone B, the department is headed by Hartej Singh in Zone D.

What explains this action of MC, according to officials, is the usage of phrase "attachment of property" which they say is not 'sealing'.

RTI activist Ravi Sharma, who had filed an application in this regard, got a reply from MC saying that "sealing is not a provision for getting the house tax deposited by any official". The reply was from zone B.

A source from MC office said, "Sealing is no provision for collecting house tax. After attachment of property, if the owner fails to pay house tax, property can be auctioned."

He added that "to avoid hassles and adopt an easy path, sealing is done which is easy as compared to lengthy procedure of attachment".

So far, as many as 90 shops have been sealed in Zone B and 72 shops have been sealed in Zone D.

Officials of the house tax wing are also under pressure to achieve their targets before the financial year ends on March 31.

The High Court order of August last year states, "The action which can be taken for recovery of house tax as given in Section 138 of Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, do not authorize sealing of the property due to non-payment of house tax or recovery of house tax". Justice Ranjit Singh had delivered this judgment while hearing a petition against Punjab.

Congress councillor Gurpreet Gogi said, "SAD-BJP government has actually formed a habit of not following any orders of High Court. They should give an answer as to under which provision buildings are being sealed."

MC Commissioner R K Verma was not available for comment.

However, MC secretary Hartej Singh said, "Property can be auctioned but the MC Act is silent on the issue of sealing. High Court order has recently come to our notice and we will take care of it now."