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| HC directive to govt in PIL on collecting tax from Vaishno Devi pilgrims | | | Early Times Report
jammu, Apr 11: In a PIL on the collection of tax from Vaishno Devi pilgrims by Katra Municipal Committee (KMC) in the areas that do not fall under, a high court division bench of Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Tashi Rabstan today directed the state government to issue a fresh notification in terms of section 4(2) of the Municipal Act, 2000, defining the outer limits of KMC, within eight weeks from today.
After the issuance of such a notification, KMC was directed to strictly carry out its functions within its territorial limits as per the rules and regulations laid down by the housing and urban development department.
It was submitted in the PIL that tens of millions of pilgrims visit the holy cave of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi and tax is being collected from them for the services rendered by ponywalas, pithoos and palkiwalas under section 66 of the J&K Municipal Act. The petitioner said it was the duty of KMC to collect tax from pilgrims and the government had no authority to levy tax on the pilgrims within the municipal limits of Katra but the Urban Development Department and Deputy Commissioner, Reasi, had been fixing rates of tax and sometimes revising the same. It was alleged that KMC was collecting tax not only within its jurisdiction but had also opened booths outside its limit and collected crores of rupees which were being allegedly swindled and not being utilized for the purpose mentioned in the Municipal Act.
The bench, after hearing the two sides, held that the areas, as specified in the preamble of the Shrine Act, beginning from Katra, more particularly Darshani Deodi, Banganga, Katra up to the holy cave and the adjoining hillocks currently under the management of Dharmarth Trust as also the areas as specified at serial Nos 1 & 2 in SRO 12 of January 15, 2015, would belong to the Shrine Board for the purposes as defined in the Shrine Act. Since, as per Section 18 of the Shrine Act, it was the duty of the Shrine Board to take control of the areas as defined in the preamble of the Act and maintain the same, it was declared that KMC had no jurisdiction or authority to levy any sort of tax in the afore-discussed areas for use of Ponies, Pithoos and Palkies by the pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine or to interfere into the affairs of the Shrine Board or encroach upon its jurisdiction in any manner whatsoever.
The bench said since the very basis of dispute in the present PIL was with regard to arbitrarily charging of tax by KMC outside its municipal limits in absence of demarcation of its outer limits, the state government was directed to issue fresh notification in terms of Section 4(2) of the Municipal Act, 2000 defining its outer limits within a period of eight weeks from today. After the issuance of such Notification, KMC was directed to strictly carry out its functions within its territorial limits as per the rules and regulations laid down by the Housing and Urban Development Department. "It is very strange that the KMC executive officer has informed that during 2010-11, the amount collected by the municipality on account of tax from the pilgrims for availing services of mules, mazdoors and palkies was to the tune of Rs 7.86 cr when it was on contract basis, but in 2011-12, the amount collected was only to the tune of Rs 5.67 cr when it was collected departmentally. There was fall in revenue collection even when the influx of pilgrims in 2011-12 must have been on higher side as compared to 2010-11. Therefore, we find force in the argument of the counsel for petitioner that some part of the collection made in the shape of tax is being swindled by some KMC officers. These allegations further find force when this court vide July 9, 2014 order had directed to place on record the action taken against one Ravi Kumar, who was then functioning as KMC EO against whom two FIRs have been registered under various offences including the offence under Section 5 of the J&K Prevention of Corruption Act," the bench said.
The bench directed the concerned agencies to frame a transparent policy in their domain areas by digitizing the whole process of collection of tax from the pilgrims for availing the services of mules, mazdoors and palkies strictly within a period of eight weeks from today so that the amount collected was properly utilized for the purposes as defined in the J&K Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988 or the Municipal Act, as the case may be.
For transparency and smooth functioning in view of the allegations as alleged in OWP No 728/2005 to curb the menace of corruption, the bench directed the concerned agencies to evolve complete digitization mechanism for transaction purposes within the same period as also for remitting the charges as also the amount in the shape of welfare fund directly into the bank accounts of members of the petitioner (union) in OWP No.728/2005 on the pattern of the employees of state government, and also for making day-to-day record of Welfare Fund which was meant for the members of the union. (JNF) |
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