South Delhi Municipal Corporation Vs Moon Steeland General Industries Pvt. Ltd. (Delhi High Court)
Delhi High Court held that IT/ITeS would fall within the definition of ‘Industrial Building’ as envisaged under Bye-law 9(e) of DMC Property Tax bye-law 2004 and therefore, demand of property tax rightly set aside. Accordingly, writ petition filed by revenue disposed of.
Facts- The respondent-assessee was allotted an industrial plot by the President of India and a conveyance deed was executed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in its favour on 14.09.2007. Thereafter, the respondent-assessee applied for sanction of building plans for reconstruction and the said sanction was granted on 26.05.2008. After completion of the same, the respondent-assessee was issued a completion certificate on 23.08.2011 by the Corporation.
On 01.09.2011, the respondent-assessee then rented out the entire building comprising of the basement, ground floor, first floor and second floor of the property in question to M/s Wipro Ltd., an Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITeS) Company.
The respondent-assessee paid property tax in respect of the subject property on the basis of self-assessment regularly for ‘industrial use’. The Corporation then served a notice dated 19.11.2013, u/s. 123D of the DMC Act, intimating the respondent-assessee that the property is being used for non-industrial activities.
