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"A Council, if it thinks fit, instead requiring payment of octroi due from any person, mercantile firm or public body to be made at the time when the animals or goods in respect of which the octroi is leviable are introduced within its octroi limits, may at any time direct that an account-current shall be kept on behalf of the Council of the octroi so due from such person, firm or body. Such account shall be settled at intervals not exceeding one month, and such person, firm or public body shall give such information or details and make such deposit or furnish such security as the Council or any officer authorized by it in this behalf shall consider sufficient to cover the amount which may at any time be due from such person, firm or body in respect of such dues. Any amount so due at the expiry of any such interval shall, for the purposes of Chapter X, be deemed to be, and shall be recoverable in the same manner as, an amount claimed on account of any tax recoverable under the said chapter."

The petitioners were given the benefit of the facility under section 142 of the said Act. They were granted an account-current bearing Account No. 127 for the payment of octroi duty on the material imported within the limits of the respondent-Municipal Council. According to the petitioners, they have accordingly paid all octroi duty on all the goods so imported and have submitted a monthly statement of payments made in the prescribed form as required under the Maharashtra Municipalities (Octroi) Rules, 1968. According to the petitioners, they have, right from the year 1973 onwards, regularly submitted, the monthly statements and have made payments of octroi dues as per the statements. According to the petitioners, at no time the correctness of the monthly statements submitted by the petitioners was questioned by the respondent- Council.

5. Under section 142 of the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, 1965 when an account-current is permitted to be kept in respect of octroi due from any person, firm or body, such account shall be settled at intervals not exceeding one month. The section further provides that any amount so due at the end of the month shall, for the purposes of Chapter X, be deemed to be and shall be recoverable under Chapter X. Under the Maharashtra Municipalities (Octroi) Rules, 1968 which have been framed in exercise of powers conferred by section 321, sub-section (2), read with the proviso to section 105, sub-section (1) of the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, 1965, rule 14 deals with declarations to be made by an importer. Under Rule 14(e), on arrival of any dutiable goods at the Octroi Naka, the importer or the driver of the vehicle or conveyance or the person bringing the goods is required to make a declaration in Form 5 in respect the goods so imported for which the importer has been permitted by the Municipal Council to keep an account current under section 142, Form 5 which is so prescribed requires the importer to submit a declaration to the Octroi Officer setting out the details of value, weight/quantity of goods as per the original invoice a true copy of which is required to be filed along with the Form. It also requires an undertaking to produce the said invoice for inspection whenever demanded within one year. This declaration is required to be checked by the Inspector at the Octroi Naka, who is required to sign it. Under rule 15(4) of these Rules, on receipt of a declaration in Form 5, the Octroi Officer is required to ascertain whether the person concerned has been allowed to keep an account current, and if so, to check the goods with the detail entered in the declaration and to fill up the certificate below the declaration and issue a pass in Form 6. This rule further requires that the Octroi Officer shall forward all such declarations together with a list in duplicate to the Central Octroi Officer for further action in accordance with the provisions of section 142. Form 6 is a pass for goods imported on behalf of the importer who has been allowed to keep an account current. Accordingly the petitioners have been filing declarations under Form 5 and have cleared the goods at the octroi naka under passes issued under Form 6.

9. The respondents also relied upon an unreported judgment of Sawant and Kolso-Patil, JJ., dated 1st March ,1988 in Writ Petition No. 420 of 1987 Garware Nylons Ltd. v. Pimpri Chinchwad Mahanagarpalika and others. In that case the Division Bench considered, inter alia. the provisions of Rule 31 of the Maharashtra Municipalities (Octroi) Rules, 1968 read with Rule 28. These rules deal with the refund of octroi. In construing these rules the Court said that the prohibition against making any requisition for specified statements, registers and documents of the importer beyond the period of 6 months prescribed under Rule 31, sub-rule (2), has nothing to do with the recovery of octroi. Hence it cannot be said that the octroi dues cannot be recovered beyond the period so prescribed. This judgment deals with the interpretation of rules which are not applicable at all to the present case. Hence the ratio of this judgment has no application to the facts before us.