In a hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court asked the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) to clarify its stand on house tax from residents. Gurgaon In 2009, the Gurgaon Citizens' Council had approached the court over the MCG charging them house tax without providing any basic service. Even though last week, the MCG had announced that it waived off house tax for two years (2008-10), according to the petitioner, it failed to inform the court about this.

"The MCG has acted very cleverly where in, just a week before this hearing was supposed to take place, it announced to the media that it has waived off the house tax for two years, but did not inform the court about it. However, the court was not amused with the move and asked the MCG lawyer to give an official statement clarifying the corporation's stand on the house tax issue. Justice DK Jain has given 10 days to the corporation to file a report stating whether or not it has waived off the tax for the said period," said R S Rathee, president, Gurgaon Citizens Council.

Adding, "The court has also asked the municipal corporation whether it would start providing basic services like water and sewerage before charging house tax. We also appealed to the court that it should ask the state government on what it is doing about the issue of private builder areas. Ideally, five years after a builder is given licence by the Town and Country Planning department, the builder should take a completion certificate. However, neither the state government nor the private builders seem to be in a hurry to obtain completion certificate. And without this certificate, the corporation cannot takeover the builder area. The authorities are purposefully delaying the entire process."

The MCG commissioner, on his part, said they %will file a response. "The court has given us 10 days in which we have to file our report and we will do so," said MCG commissioner Sudhir Rajpal.