Anushka Sharma –
Published On: November 23, 2021 at 12:00 IST
According to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Property Tax (Amendment) Rules, 2020, any property must be issued a Property Identification (PID) number, whether it is ‘Authorised’ or ‘Unauthorised,’ according to the High Court of Karnataka.
Though the Amended Rules, which take effect on September 1, 2020, allow the BBMP to enter property tax information in Form-A registers for ‘Authorised’ properties and Form-B registers for ‘Unauthorised’ properties, the Court stated that both categories of properties require the assignment of a PID number.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while disposing of petitions filed by Madhusudhan Bhadri and others.
The Petitioners objected to their property being included in Form-B, saying that it was in violation of a previous High Court decision. The BBMP, on the other hand, pointed out that, while the Court had determined in 2014 that property tax particulars could not be categorised into Form-A and Form-B under the then-existing Law, it had given the BBMP the Authority to change the law.
The rules were revised in 2020, according to the civic body, to provide for the maintenance of property tax particulars in Form-A and Form-B, as a result of the Court’s liberty.
The Court ordered the BBMP to analyse the Petitioners’ properties to determine whether they should be filed in Form-A or Form-B after reading over the updated rules defining ‘Authorised’ and ‘Unauthorised’ properties. The court also ordered the BBMP to assign PID numbers to the Petitioners’ properties in accordance with the guidelines.