Pz M Faheem
Jammu and Kashmir High Court today scrapped the March 27 circular issued by RTO Kashmir, which mandated reregistration of vehicles with outside state registration numbers within 15 days. This curtail judgment came as a major relief to the vehicle owners across the valley.
The high court said that a vehicle once registered in any Indian state doesn’t require to be registered elsewhere in India, but when the Motor Vehicle registered in one State and runs in other states for more than 12 months, the owner shall apply to the Registration within whose jurisdiction the vehicle is for the assignment of the new registration mark, this is valid under Sections 46 and 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988.
Moreover, lifetime tax that is levied at the point of registering a vehicle in terms of Section 3 of the Motor Vehicles Act cannot be levied merely on a presumption that a vehicle registered outside JK has remained in the Union Territory for more than 12 months.
Earlier, On April 22, High Court had reserved its judgment on two petitions filed, one by Zahoor Ahmad Bhat through senior advocate Faisal Qadri with Altaf Mehraj and another by Irshad Hussain Munshi through advocates Fasil Javid and Mukhtar Ahmad. The petitioners had submitted that the impugned Circular was issued without jurisdiction and was liable to be quashed.
Both of the petitioners submitted that they had purchased vehicles at New Delhi and registered under the Transport Authority Government of NCT Delhi, and in terms of provisions of Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and Rules, no assignment of a new registration mark was required under these sections.
Justices Ali Mohammad Magrey and Vinod Chatterji Koul, as a divisional bench, asked authorities to follow Section 47 of the Act and Rule 54 of Central Motor Vehicles Act 1988 for assignment of new registration marks of the vehicles. While the bench allowed authorities to “screen, scrutinize, verify” validity of documents of vehicles entering Jammu and Kashmir with outside numbers.
In conversation with Kashmir News Bureau, Advocate Zahoor Ahmad Bhat expressed his rejoice and said, “It’s for the first time that any case has been solved in 20 days, and this was a challenge which could not have been achieved without the public and media support. This judgment has brought relief to 70% of vehicle owners in Jammu and Kashmir, and particularly at this time of the pandemic, it is a big relief.” (KNB)