Prima facie‘Mithi River’ is a ‘river’ & dredging of river falls within the definition of this expression u/s. 65(36) of the Finance Act, 94

The question whether ‘Mithi River’ is a river or not, is a pure question of fact which needs to be examined and settled at the final hearing stage of the appeal. For the present, we consider the fact that the activity undertaken by the appellant in the aforesaid stream of water was ‘dredging’. Their limited case is that the activity was undertaken in a drain and not in a river. WE note that even the agreement between the appellant and MMRDA describes the stream as ‘Mithi River’. It cannot be called otherwise merely by reason of the fact that rainwater or domestic sewage...