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CASE NO.: Appeal (civil)  5146 of 2006

PETITIONER: Ram Chandra Srivastava

RESPONDENT: Chairman, DDA and another

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 22/11/2006

BENCH: S. B. Sinha & Markandey Katju

JUDGMENT: J U D G M E N T (Arising out of Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 9685 of 2005)

MARKANDEY KATJU, J.

       Leave granted.

       This appeal has been filed against the impugned judgment and order  dated 11.2.205 of the Division Bench of Delhi High Court in LPA No.  1045/2004 of CWP No. 62 of 2004.

       Heard the appellant in-person and Mr. V.B. Saharya, learned counsel  for the DDA.

       The impugned judgment states as under:

" This appeal is preferred against the order made by  learned single Judge in W.P.(C) No. 62/2004 on  28.9.2004.  Learned single Judge has examined the  aspect of property tax which has no concern with the  services provided by the Delhi Development Authority.   About the ground rent the learned single Judge has taken  into consideration the facts and the explanation put forth  by the respondents and the accounting practice was found  to be not unscientific.  In this view of the matter, we  would not like to interfere.  Hence the appeal is  dismissed".

In our opinion the impugned judgment is a cryptic judgment, and with  due respect to the Division bench we feel that the matter in dispute has not  been considered by it properly.  In particular, we are of the opinion that the  Division Bench should have carefully considered whether the service charge  levied by the DDA was valid, considering the fact that service charge is a fee  and not a tax and hence there should be a broad co-relation (though not an  exact co-relation) between the total service charges levied by the DDA and  the value of the services provided to the citizens.

The Division Bench also should have considered in detail the  appellant’s grievance regarding the ground rent.   

In that view of the matter, the impugned judgment dated 11.2.2005 is  set aside and the matter is remanded to the Division Bench for a fresh  decision after hearing the parties, in accordance with law.  The Division  Bench is requested to give a more detailed judgment dealing with the matter  in issue, and dealing with the contentions of the appellant.

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The appeal is allowed. No costs.