The High Court of Karnataka on Monday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition questioning the legality of amendments made to the law empowering the municipalities and city corporations to increase property tax every year.
A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum passed the order on the petition filed by Nagaraj S. Hongal of Ilkal in Bagalkot district.
The petitioner has questioned the legality of Sections 101 and 102A of the Karnataka Municipalities (Second Amendment) Act, 2021, and Section 108 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Act, 2021. “Enhancement of property tax cannot be done every year by a welfare state. In a welfare state, the state cannot act like a businessman, and nor is commercial element always the criteria in policy regime,” the petitioner has contended while questioning the legality of the provision that allows increase in property tax every year, even in the absence of revision of guidance values of properties across the State under the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957.
Claiming that the property tax charged in Karnataka was highest in the country, the petitioner has contended that the amended provisions were arbitrary as they gave “unbridled and unfettered powers to local bodies to charge higher property tax every year with or without [the provision of] higher civic amenities”.
“The new law imposes an obligation on the property owner, but there are no checks and balances on the local bodies, or [any effort] to test the level of efficiency of local bodies,” the petitioner has pointed out.
The amended provision to increase the revenue of municipal bodies, which is unheard of in the past, would create an extraordinary burden on all sections of society, including the marginalised ones, the petitioner has claimed.
