Allahabad HC grants relief to AMU in property tax arrears case

The Allahabad HC ordered that the frozen bank accounts of AMU should be restored in connection with a property tax arrears case amounting to Rs 14 crore.

Lucknow: In a big relief to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the Allahabad High Court on Saturday ordered the restoration of its frozen bank accounts in connection with a property tax arrears case amounting to Rs 14 crore. The Aligarh Municipal Corporation had seized the AMU’s State Bank of India account over the alleged non-payment of house tax by the university to the civic body

While pronouncing its order, the court stated that the process of collecting the remaining house tax can be completed till January 31.

University administration said that AMU has been exempted from property tax on libraries, classrooms and labs in the university as the property tax is not collected in other central universities of the country too.

AMU Assistant PRO Zeeshan Ahmed said that the university had gone to the High Court and now the court has granted relief to the varsity.

The varsity also wrote letters to the Union Minister of Education and the University Grants Commission to settle the issue of payment of property tax dues.

The University has been paying house tax for residential areas and it got an exemption for the classrooms, laboratories and libraries from the Aligarh Nagar Palika. In 2006, when Aligarh Nagar Nigam (Aligarh Municipal Corporation) came into existence, it reversed the decision and the University approached the high court challenging its decision.

With PTI inputs