State Act

The Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965.

169. Appeals to 1[Magistrate or 2[Committee]].— 3[(1)] Appeals against any claim for taxes taxes 4[(except taxes on buildings and lands or both)] or other dues included in a bill presented to any person under section 150 or any other provisions of this Act may be made to any Judicial Magistrate or Bench of such Magistrate by whom under the direction of the Sessions Judge such class of cases is to be tried. 5[6[(2) Appeal against any claim for taxes on buildings and lands or both including other dues in in relation thereto, if any, included in the bill presented to any person under section 150 may be made, at the direction of the assessee,— (a) first to the Property Tax Appeal Committee for each Municipal Council, consisting of the following members, namely :— (i) Collector of the District or his nominee not below the rank of a Deputy Collector. . . . ex-officio Chairman; (ii) President of the Council. . . . ex-officio Member; (iii) Chairperson of the Women and Child Welfare Committee and where there is no such Committee constituted then Chairperson of any other Subjects Committee as the Council may determine, till the Constitution of such Committee. . . . ex-officio Member; 7[(iv) Leader of the Opposition in Council. Council. . . . member;] (v) An officer of the Town Planning and Valuation Department other than the concerned Valuation Officer not below the rank of a Town Planning Officer to be nominated by the Deputy Director of Town Planning of the concerned Division; . . . . 8[Explanation.— For the purposes of sub-clause (iv), Leader of the Opposition in the Council means an elected Councillor who is in for the time being, the leader of the political party, Aghadi or Front which is in opposition in the Council, having greatest numerical strength, as informed by the political party, Aghadi or Front, to the Collector as provided by rule 3 of the Maharashtra Local Authority Members’ Disqualification Rules, 1987, framed under the Maharashtra Local Authority Members’ Disqualification Act, 1986 (Mah. XX of 1987);] or (b) directly to any Judicial Magistrate or Bench of such Magistrates, by whom under the direction of the Sessions Judge such class of cases is to be tried: Provided that an appeal against the decision of the Property Tax Appeal Committee under clause (a) shall lie to the Judicial Magistrate or Bench of such Magistrates referred to in clause (b).] 9[(2A) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), the Property Tax Appeal Committee may, suo motu review all cases (excluding those in which appeals have directly been preferred under clause (b) of sub-section (2), where the rateable values 10[or the capital values, as the case may be,] of the properties have increased three-fold or more than the last preceding revision done under section 124: Provided that, the Regional Director, on a revision application made by a property owner, within fifteen days from the date of the decision of the Property Tax Appeal Committee, may, reconsider the decision of the said Committee and on being satisfied about the merits of the case issue directions to amend the said decision and the decision so amended, shall be deemed to be the final decision of the Committee.] (3) The Chairman shall preside over all meetings of the 1[Committee]. (4) The Chairman shall fix the date, time and place of the hearing of each appeal and issue an individual notice of hearing to the Chief Officer and the Appellant. (5) The quorum for every meeting of a Tribunal shall be three including the Chairman of the 2[Committee]: Provided that, if within half an hour of the time fixed for the meeting of the 3[Committee] there is is no quorum and if the Chairman alone or Chairman and any one member are present, the Chairman alone, or the Chairman and the other member, as the case may be, shall be deemed to be the necessary quorum to constitute the meeting of the 4[Committee]. The Chairman shall then proceed further with the hearing and record the decision in the appeal which shall be deemed to be the decision of the 5[Committee]. (6) Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (5), all decision of the 6[Committee] shall be by a majority opinion of the members present and where the opinion is equally divided, the decision of the Chairman shall be the decision of the 7[Committee]. (7) No act or proceedings of any such 8[Committee] shall be deemed to be invalid by reason only of the existence of any vacancy among its members or any defect in the constitution thereof. (8) A certified copy of the decision of the 9[Committee] shall be supplied to the concerned parties, parties, by the 10[Committee]].