Kerala: Top court docket upholds HC order exempting nun lodging, hostels from paying constructing tax

The Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a Kerala High Court ruling which held that residential lodging for nuns and hostels run by faculties for his or her college students will likely be eligible for exemption from paying constructing tax beneath the Kerala Building Tax Act, 1975.
Under Section 3(1)(b) of the Act, buildings which might be used principally for spiritual, charitable or instructional functions, or as factories or workshops, are exempted from constructing tax.
The state, in its attraction, had argued {that a} constructing used principally for spiritual or instructional functions can solely be a constructing that’s used for spiritual/instructional exercise and never for exercise which has no direct reference to spiritual/instructional exercise — comparable to residential quarters for nuns, clergymen or hostel lodging for college kids.
However, the highest court docket bench of Justices R F Nariman and B R Gavai dismissed the competition.