JUDGMENT Malik, J. - This is a plaintiff's appeal. The plaintiff is the Municipal Board of Cawnpore. There is a plot of land No. 4/200, the major portion of which is within the Municipal limits of Cawnpore. The plot belonged to one Ram Sewak who died on 24-5-1936, and the name of the defendant Tirjugi Narain, his son, was substituted in the Municipal records on 8-1-1942. Ram Sewak had demarcated the plot into various small building plots and gave them to various persons on building lease. The Municipal Board in the year 1938 assessed Ram Sewak to house-tax and water rate calculating the value of the income of the houses as one unit and imposed a tax of Rs. 17/4 as house-tax and Rs. 34-8-0 as water rate. In April 1943 the house-tax was enhanced to Rs. 29-10-0 and the water rate to Rs. 59-4-0. No notice of this enhancement was given to Tirjugi Narain defendant and the Municipal Board in spite of the fact that the name of Trijugi Narain was on its records, proceeded against Ram Sewak, who had died seven years previous to that. 2. Learned counsel appearing for the Board admits that if the various occupiers are separately taxed, the Board would not be entitled to levy any tax, the income from each of the houses being less than Rs. 6. To avoid that position the Board has fallen upon this ingenious plan of taxing the owner of the land and pooling the income of all the houses together as one unit. To my mind, the various sections of the Municipalities Act make it perfectly clear that it is not the owner of the land who is assessed to house-tax and water rate, specially if he has let out the land to other people on building lease. Section 149, Municipalities Act, lays down that except when otherwise provided by rule every tax other than a scavenging tax or tax for the cleansing of latrines and privies on the annual value of buildings or lands or of both shall be leviable primarily from the actual occupier of the property upon which the said taxes are assessed. Section 149, Municipalities Act, lays down that except when otherwise provided by rule every tax other than a scavenging tax or tax for the cleansing of latrines and privies on the annual value of buildings or lands or of both shall be leviable primarily from the actual occupier of the property upon which the said taxes are assessed. Apart from the provisions of S. 149, on general principles of law, I am inclined to hold that unless the Municipalities Act made a special provision for taxing the owner of the land, the house-tax and water rate, which are primarily intended to be imposed for building, should be levied only against the owner of the building. 3. If the contention advanced on behalf of the Municipal Board be accepted, then in a place like Allahabad where most of the houses are built on land belonging to the Government, it would be the Government which would have to pay house-tax and water rate on the total income of the houses owned and possessed by various occupiers and lessees. Learned counsel has submitted that this is a test case filed on behalf of the Municipal Board. If I had any doubts on the point I would have given him leave to file an appeal under the Letters Patent, but there is, to my mind, absolutely no force in the contention advanced by learned counsel, nor has been able to show any section or any rule of law which would justify the Municipal Board in imposing a tax of the nature imposed by the Board against Ram Sewak in 1938 and 1943. As regards the jurisdiction of the civil Court, the matter is concluded by various authorities which have been cited in the judgment under appeal. There is no force in this appeal and I dismiss it with costs. Leave to file an appeal under the Letters Patent is refused.