The petitioner claims to be a charitable trust registered under the Indian Trust Act. The deponent of the Writ Petition claims that he and his wife came to India after serving a considerable time in United States as Doctors, contributed their entire life time earnings and formed the trust after demise of their only daughter in an accident in United States. The trust has established the Cardiac Center. Para-3 of the writ petition sets out the factual ingredients for the petitioner’s claim that the property in question is being pursued exclusively for charitable purposes. Earlier when the premises was within the jurisdiction of the erstwhile Quthbullapur municipality, after a due process and exercising the discretion under Section 88 of the A.P. Municipalities Act, 1965 an exemption order dated 11.02.2003 was issued, exempting the premises from liability to pay property tax, on the ground that charitable activity was being pursued therein. In 2007 Quthbullapur Municipality was merged to constitute the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, now covered by the provisions of the 1955 Act and of the A.P. Municipal Corporations Act, 1994 which delineate generic provisions relating to municipal corporations. After the first respondent absorbed the Quthbullapur municipality in itself, the impugned proceedings dated 20.12.2011 and 02.02.2012 were issued, the contents of which have already been adverted to. The petitioner specifically asserts that cancellation of the exemption for the petitioner institution, a charitable organization from the liability to property tax by the order dated 20.12.2011 was without notice and opportunity.
