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Decision No. CIC/SG/A/2010/000499/7387
Appeal No. CIC/SG/A/2010/000499
Relevant Facts
emerging from the Appeal:
Appellant : Naveen Kapoor,
E-485, GK Part-II,
New Delhi - 110048
Respondent : Mr. S. C. Yadav
Public Information Officer &
Jt. Assessor & Collector/Admn,
Municipal Corporation of Delhi,
Assessment & Collection Dept(HQ),
Property Tax Building, Ring Road,
Lajpat Nagar-III, New Delhi- 110024
RTI application filed on : 17/08/2009
PIO replied : 17/09/2009
First appeal filed on : 30/09/2009
First Appellate Authority order : 20/11/2009
Second Appeal received on : 24/02/2010
Date of Notice of Hearing : 12/03/2010
Hearing held on : 07/04/2010
Regarding property tax on appurtenant land in farm houses in areas of MCD in the light of the
Supreme Court Judgment by a Bench of Justices S.B. Sinha and Dalveer Bhandari :
Sl. Information sought. PIO’s Reply
1. What steps has the Assessment and It is not clear as to which Judgment the applicant is
Collection Department of MCD taken after referring to. However, after receiving a SC decision in
that Judgment? MCD v Rishi Raj Jain, the deptt. Tried to formulate some
guidelines based on it and a decision was taken with
consultation of law department that no fixed guidelines
are required to be issued.
2. How is the property tax on farm houses being As per SC decision, each case has to be dealt on its own
evaluated? merits.
3. What appurtenant land is taken for There is no fixed limit on the appurtenant land; it will
calculating vacant land tax? depend on case to case basis.
4. How many property tax returns have been PTR checked/scrutinized Notices Issued
checked or scrutinized for farm houses in all
zones of MCD? South Zone 58 Nil
Najafgarh Zone 69 Nil
Narela Zone 46 Nil
5. How much property tax returns from 2004- No separate account is being maintained in respect of
05 to 2009-10 have been collected from farm farm houses.
houses on dwelling units and vacant land in
various zones?
6. Has the assessment and collection SC decisions are binding on all persons and no separate
department of MCD clarified to the assesses clarification needs to be issued.
as to what vacant land tax is applicable to
farm houses and if not, then give reasons as
to why the same has not been done.
7. How much loss of revenue is suffered by No information is available.
assessment and collection department of
MCD? Which officer is responsible for the
same? Give his name, designation and
ph/mobile no.
8. How many PTRS have been checked after Same as answer to query 4.
and how many notices have been sent as per
the Commissioners’ Orders and information
sent to Building Department?
Grounds for First Appeal:
Unsatisfactory and incomplete information supplied.
Order of the First Appellate Authority:
Appeal dismissed. Response of PIO is in order. But need for guidelines as to contention aspects of
assessment of properties cannot be ignored.
Grounds for Second Appeal:
No guidelines are there. No proper records are being maintained. Provisions of DMC Act not being
followed.
Relevant Facts emerging during Hearing:
The following were present:
Appellant: Mr. Naveen Kapoor;
Respondent: Mr. S. C. Yadav, Public Information Officer & Jt. Assessor & Collector/Admn;
The Appellant has sought information about guidelines for farmhouses and other related
matters. The PIO has informed the Appellant that the department has decided that no fixed guidelines
are required to be issued. This appears to be an unfortunate situation which appears to be designed to
promote arbitrariness. The Appellant is aggrieved by this but the Information Commission has no
jurisdiction in this matter. It would be desirable if proper guidelines were issued so that arbitrariness,
opacity in decision making an corruption could be reduced.
Decision:
The Appeal is disposed.
Notice of this decision be given free of cost to the parties.
Any information in compliance with this Order will be provided free of cost as per Section 7(6) of RTI Act.
Shailesh Gandhi
Information Commissioner
07 April 2010
(In any correspondence on this decision, mention the complete decision number.) (AS)