HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO
WRIT PETITION No.8744 OF 2021
Date:08.04.2021
Between:
Garudasu Sreedhar S/o.Garudasu Janardhan and others.
.....Petitioners
And
The State of Telangana,
rep by its Principal Secretary, Transport Department,
T.S.Secretariat, Hyderabad & others.
.....Respondents
The Court made the following:
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HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO
WRIT PETITION No.8744 of 2021
ORDER:
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Assistant Government Pleader for Transport.
2. This writ petition is filed with the following prayer:
" ...to issue a Writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of WRIT OF MANDAMUS Declaring the action of the Respondents in not accepting the Non-Use Intimations submitted by the petitioners through e-mail along with documents as per Rule 12-A of TSMV Taxation Rule, in respect of the Contract Carriage vehicles of the petitioners, as mentioned in the cause title as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to law and consequently direct the respondents to accept the Non-Use intimations in respect of the contract carriage vehicles of the petitioners and pass such other order or orders as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case."
3. In common judgment rendered by this Court in WP.No.13505 of 2020 and Batch, dated 02.11.2020, this Court observed as under:
" In view of the above mentioned facts and reasons, this Court directs the official respondents to process and pass appropriate orders on the applications made under Rule 12-A of the Rules, 1963, whether they have received physically or through online portal, e-mail, courier, registered post etc., in relation to exemption of payment of advance motor vehicle tax for the two quarters i.e. April- June, 2020, and July-September, 2020 only. It is made clear that the applications, made for exemption of payment of motor vehicle tax, shall not be rejected on the ground that the relevant documents are not annexed or filed along with the application, as most of the documents that are supposed to be appended along with application will be -3- available with the officials online portals. In case, the official respondents are of the opinion that any documents are required for processing the application and for passing necessary orders, the applicants shall be put on notice, and reasonable time shall be granted for submitting the said documents. It is also made clear that in case, any of the petitioners want to ply the vehicle for the subsequent quarters, they should be permitted to pay the quarterly advance motor vehicle tax for those quarters, and necessary permission should be given to ply the vehicles without insisting the petitioners to pay the quarterly tax for the period of April-June, 2020, and July-September, 2020, as a condition precedent for paying the tax for the subsequent quarters for giving permission. Any order passed by the authorities shall be communicated to the petitioners. However, before passing the orders, if necessary, the petitioners should be given an opportunity of hearing. The petitioners should be given the benefit of exemption granted by the Government waiving the penalty, insofar as the payment of tax for these two quarters are concerned in case any adverse orders are passed. This entire exercise shall be completed as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order."
4. For the reasons alike in the common order dated 02.11.2020, the respondent-authorities are directed that till such time the application of the petitioner, sent through e-mail, intimating about the stoppage of the subject vehicles is pending consideration and there is no intimation to ply the vehicles, the relief granted by this Court in W.P.No.13505 of 2020 and batch is also extended in favour of the petitioners herein, without restricting the said benefit only to the two quarters i.e. from April- June, 2020 and July-September, 2020, as directed in WP.No.13505 of 2020 and Batch.
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5. Accordingly, Writ Petition is disposed of. Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed. There shall be no order as to costs.
__________________ P.NAVEEN RAO,J 8th April, 2021 Nvl -5- HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE P.NAVEEN RAO WRIT PETITION No.8744 of 2021 Date:08.04.2021 Nvl