22-year-old legal battle: NMMC, SSIs at loggerheads over SC order on property tax dues

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has said that the Supreme Court has ordered small scale industries located in the MIDC TTC industrial belt, under the civic body jurisdiction, to pay their property tax arrears by August 2 and allowed it a recourse to attach properties of defaulters. The order, which comes after a 22-year court battle, has been disputed by the TTC MIDC Industries Association, which claims that the NMMC misrepresented facts to the court, but the NMMC says it will fill the civic body coffers.

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has claimed a major victory stating that the Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the small scale industries located in the MIDC TTC industrial belt, under the civic body jurisdiction, to pay their property tax arrears by August 2 and allowed it a recourse to attach properties of defaulters. The SC order, whjch the NMMC says will fill the civic body coffers, has come amidst a 22-year court battle,

HT Image

The TTC MIDC Industries Association (TMIA), formerly Small Scale Entrepreneurs’ Association (SSEA-TTC), which has been waging the court battle, however, claimed that the NMMC has misrepresented facts to the court, which has made the observations sans hearing its side. It said the NMMC is twisting the SC order and there are still legal issues that need to be addressed before the final order comes.

The SSEA-TTC had in 2001 filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court (HC) disputing NMMC’s right to collect property tax from the industries in the TTC-MIDC belt of Navi Mumbai. They claimed that the Maharashtra Industial Development Corporation (MIDC) was its nodal agency to which it pays taxes and that NMMC had done little work in the region. The HC had after 10 years of legal battle, rejected the petition, following which the SSEA-TTC had approached the SC in 2010.

Rajesh Narvekar, municipal commissioner, said, “Some SSIs of the region had taken a stand that they will not pay taxes and had approached first the HC and then the SC. Following a hearing in the case, the SC has passed a detailed order fixing August 2 as the next hearing date and asking that in the interim period, all defaulting SSIs pay their tax, failing which the hearing will not be conducted on the date.”

He added, “The NMMC has also been given the recourse to seal the premises of the defaulting SSIs to collect the property tax due from them as the dues are pending despite the adverse HC order and lack of any stay by the SC. The issue of pending recovery since 2001 has now been settled, which will enable NMMC to earn a good amount of revenue.”

Narvekar said, “NMMC has done a lot of development work including concretisation of roads and providing other civic services in the MIDC region.”

He said, “We are hopeful that the SSIs will abide by the order and pay their dues. They wouldn’t want a situation where we have to seize their properties to recover the dues.”

The TTC MIDC Industries Association (TMIA), which has around 1,600 members, appears to be in no mood to accept the NMMC version of the SC order. It claims that the civic body misrepresented facts in the court, the order was passed without it being heard, NMMC is now twisting the order and that the final order will come only after a couple of more hearings.

Said R Srinivasan, CEO of TMIA, “The order is basically an observation of the SC to recover the principal amount based on the interim application by the NMMC, which was pending. The main matter is posted for hearing on August 2 and so, this is not the final order.”

Srinivasan said, “The SC has clearly asked the NMMC to collect the tax as per the law and seize the premises if not paid. The onus is on the NMMC to show under what law it is proceeding to seize the property. There is no such law.”

He added, “This order was given without us even being heard. Whatever the NMMC filed on April 17 has not been served on us. This matter can be settled only after the final hearing and disposal of the matter which should happen in the next couple of hearings.”

Box

What NMMC said in SC

According to the NMMC, since the SLP had been pending in the SC, some members of the association had paid only the principal amount while some had paid nothing. The NMMC has submitted a list of the defaulters to the SC on April 17.

At the hearing on April 19, the list was brought to the notice of the SC bench of justice M R Shah and justice C T Ravikumar.

Senior advocates Shekhar Naphade and Vinay Navre representing NMMC stated

1) Since the time of the HC order against the SSIs, the members have not paid the tax to NMMC, hence, their petition should not be taken up for hearing.

2) It is a fact that the SSIs have not paid property tax for years

3) The defaulter list of the SSIs have been submitted along with additional documents on April 17.