Property tax relief

All property owners in Bombay can now pay property taxes under the old unamended rates with 50% differential between the old and steep new rates introduced in 2010, the Bombay High Court (BHC) directed on February 24, 2014. Earlier the BHC had granted relief to some owners who had approached it for relief. Hearing a bunch of 47 petitions by the Property Owners’ Association (POA), societies and individual property owners among others, Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M. S. Sanklecha passed an order granting them relief, as reported in The Times of India on March 10, 2014.
The new property tax system was based on capital value of property and not the "reasonable rent” that the premises would fetch. Deemed "arbitrary and unconstitutional” by the petitioners, among those affected were several private charitable trusts, including the Bombay Parsi Punchayet and several fire temples who specially formed the Atashbehrams, Agiaries and Religious Institutions Welfare Society to challenge the new system that took away exemptions granted to them earlier. The POA, represented by advocate H. N. Vakil and others, felt the new taxes were discriminatory and unreasonable, the newspaper reported.