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AIR 1971 SC 1201, which was a case where a person was in arrears of
property tax, due under the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation
Act, 1949: Consequently, the Municipal Corporation created a charge over
the property of the defaulter. The property was sold in execution of a
mortgage decree. When the Municipal Corporation purported to exercise
their charge over the property, the purchaser in Courtauction filed a suit
for a declaration that he was the owner of the property and that the arrears
of Municipal Tax due by the transferor were not recoverable from him by
proceeding against the property purchased in the auction. In the appeal
before Supreme Court, the corporation's main argument was that where
the local law provided for creation of a charge against a property for which
Municipal taxes were due, transferee of such properties were imputed with
constructive knowledge of any charge created against the properties that
they had purchased. Supreme Court rejecting the said argument held that
while constructive notice was sufficient to satisfy the requirement of
notice in the proviso to Section 100 of the TP Act whether the transferee
has constructive notice of the charge had to be determined on the facts
and circumstances of the case. (extracted from paragraph 21 of decision in
State of Karnataka v. Shreyas Papers (P) Ltd: (2006) 15 SCC 615). The facts
of present case reveals that before entering into a private treaty through
negotiation the petitioner had the constructive knowledge of the fact that,
the property in question was charged to Commercial Tax dues.