Excess and illegal mutation fees charged by bidhannagar municipal corporation

You should submit application for refund to the concerned department; and if they failed to refund your money, then you have to file a writ petition for refund and charge them with damages also if they received extra money contrary to rules.

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Did you submit your claim for refund of amount paid in excess to due ?

Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation is charging illegal Mutation Fees openly from all Mutation applicants.

I have done an RTI asking them under which rule they are charging 0.8% Mutation Fees whereas the actual legal rate is Rs.200 only.

Once I get reply to the RTI Application, I will send a Notice to Municipal Commissioner to Refund the Excess and Illegal Mutation Fees collected.

I don't think they will give refund so easily since they are doing this illegal act with everyone. 

What legal remedies do I have in such a scenario?

Hi Prabal, I’m Adv. Niharika and here is my take on you query.

First of all, you should send a Notice to the corporation regarding the same and mention in it to either settle the dispute and if they fail to compensate and remedy that then you will be heading towards legal recourse.

You have multiple remedies available.

You can either file a suit for recovery in a civil court of concerning jurisdiction and then fight the case on merit, considering you have sufficient evidence to prove your version, that you paid the mutation fee at 0.8%, whereas the State Government rules prescribe Rs.200.

Secondly, you can register a complaint in the District Consumer Redressal Forum, for the failing services of Municipal Corporation. At this Court, you can present your case yourself without engaging an Advocate.

Another alternative remedy can be filing an application before the Permanent Lok Adaalat of your city/district. Municipal Corporations are Public Utility Services. Under S. 22(c) of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987, PLA have jurisdiction to try cases concerning Public Utility Services.

Furthermore, I’d like to state that applications before PLA are at the pre litigation stage and hiring an advocate is also not required to file an application before the said forum. You can directly bring the law in motion without any involvement of an advocate or pleader.

I hope this information yields fruitful to you and in case you require further guidance, you can contact me via email at niharikalohan@yahoo.com