C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 DATE OF DECISION: APRIL 22, 2008 Ravinder Singh and others .....PETITIONERS Versus Union of India and others ....RESPONDENTS CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG --- Present: Mr. A.C.Jain, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mrs.Sudeepti Sharma, A.A.G., Punjab. .. SATISH KUMAR MITTAL, J. The petitioners, who are in transport business and owning/possessing the transport vehicles known as Trollas, manufactured by TATA Motors, described as LPS 3015 and 3516, have filed the instant petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a direction in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents for allowing the petitioners to ply their vehicles with full laden weight as permitted/sanctioned in the Registration Certificates issued by the appropriate Regional Transport Authority. It is the case of the petitioners that the vehicle described as C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -2- LPS 3015 and LPS 3516 have been certified to carry full laden weight of 45.200 and 44.200 Tonnes, respectively. It is further the case of the petitioners that the Registration Certificates issued to all the petitioners clearly show that all the vehicles owned by them have 18 tyres and they are eligible to carry full laden weight of 45.200/44.200 Tonnes, respectively. It is also the case of the petitioners that they have obtained the requisite permits from the State Transport Authority under the provisions of Section 66 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and according to those permits the petitioners can carry full laden weight of 45.200/44.200 Tonnes, respectively. In spite of that, the authorities under the Motor Vehicles Act are not allowing the vehicles of the petitioners to pass through their respective territories carrying weight up to the aforesaid limit. It is further the case of the petitioners that when the petitioners approached the State Transport Authority, Punjab for renewal of their respective permits, the said Authority reduced the full laden weight of their respective vehicles from 45.200/44.200 Tonnes to 35.200 Tonnes per vehicle, without any reason. Copy of one such permit has been annexed with this petition as Annexure P-9. It is also the case of the petitioners that the action of the respondents by unilaterally reducing the full laden weight of the vehicles directly affects the gross carriage weight of the vehicles, which is detrimental to the interest of the petitioners and, thus, the said action of the respondents is absolutely illegal, unconstitutional and unsustainable and void. Therefore, a direction is required to be issued to the respondents for allowing the petitioners to ply their vehicles with full laden weight as permitted/sanctioned as per the Registration Certificates issued C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -3- the appropriate Regional Transport Authority. During the pendency of this petition, vide order dated May 21, 2007, an interim direction was issued to the State Transport Authority, Punjab, Chandigarh to consider the representation made by the petitioners and take a decision on the same after providing an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners. The State Transport Commissioner, Punjab, exercising the powers of the Regional Transport Authority, has considered the detailed representation made by the petitioners and rejected the same while giving the following reasoning:- “I have carefully gone through the arguments led by the petitioners as well as the relevant record. As far as the plea of the petitioners that the vehicles of these two models belonging to them consist of five Axles is concerned, it has been found that as per the drawing approved by the State Transport Authority, Punjab, in respect of the vehicles of these two Models vide letters dated 20.5.1999 and 8.1.2000 only four Axles can be provided with only 14 tyres. Therefore, according to their own version of the petitioners, one additional axle and four additional tyres stand provided by the petitioners in their vehicles of their own. As regards mentioning of Gross Vehicle Weight or Gross Compiled Weight of 44200 kg and 45200 kg in the R.Cs of their vehicles, since the same is found to have been wrongly mentioned, the Registering Authority concerned can be asked to rectify this omission after issuing notices to the owners of the vehicles concerned. As regards the plea of the petitioners that the State of Haryana vide letter dated 5.4.2004 has issued directions to all their DTOs to allow the gross vehicle weight of 44200 Kg to all those vehicles having 18 tyres, it may be added that the Government of India vide its Notification C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -4- No.SO-728(E) dated 18.10.1996 which was published in the Motor Vehicles Manual has prescribed the following maximum Gross weight in respect of four axle vehicles for which the drawing stands approved by this Authority vide letter dated 20.5.99: S.No. Transport Category Vehicle Max.GVW in tonnes Maximum safe Axle weight 1 Two tyres of front Axle 16.2 6 tonnes on front Axles 2 Four tyres on rear Axle 10.2 tonnes on rear Axles 3 Eight tyres on rear Tendem Axle 19.0 19 tonnes on rear Tendem Axle Maximum Gross Vehicle Weight 35.2 Tonnes Therefore, from the above Central Government Notification, it is clearly evident that maximum gross vehicle weight in respect of four axle vehicles having 14 tyres has been fixed at 35.2 axles and the petitioners, cannot be allowed to carry weight in their vehicles more than what has been fixed as per the above Notification. Moreover, the plea of the petitioners that their financial position has severely been affected because of reduction in the weight is also not tenable as they are themselves to blame for this because they cannot be allowed to carry weight more than as mentioned above. Besides, in order to confirm the permissible GVW of the TATA LPS 3015 and LPS 3516 Model vehicles, the clarification was sought from M/s TATA Motors Limited Chandigarh regarding the GVW/GCW of the vehicles of these two models. They have clarified vide their letter dated C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -5- 21.5.2007 that the Maximum GVW/GCW of the TATA LPS 3015 and LPS 3516 Model vehicles along with suitable trailer is 30,000 Kg and 35200 Kg respectively. It has also been clarified that GVW and GCW is the same technical term. Apart from this, the TATA authorities also supplied Brochures indicating the specifications and GVW/GCW of both these models of vehicles and according to the Brochures, the maximum GVW/GCW of both these Models of vehicles namely TATA LPA 3015 and LPS 3516 has been described as 30,000 Kg and 35200 Kg respectively when coupled with suitable trailer. In the circumstances, therefore, I find no merit in the representation made by the petitioners for allowing them to ply their vehicles of these two Models with full laden weight as permitted/sanctioned as per the Registration Certificates issued by the Registering Authority.” After hearing the counsel for the parties, we do not find any illegality in the aforesaid order rejecting the claim of the petitioners. In support of their claims, counsel for the petitioners primarily put reliance upon the gross vehicle laden weight mentioned in the Registration Certificates of the vehicles as 45.200/44.200 Tonnes, respectively. They have also placed reliance upon the notification dated 8.6.1989 whereby the vehicle having 5 axles consisting 18 tyres has been permitted to carry weight of 50 Tonnes. As per the said notification and Rule 95 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, each tyre of 1000x20 with 16 ply rating can carry weight of 3480/3050 Kgs. In view of this notification, counsel for the petitioners argued that since the vehicles of the petitioners are having 5 axles consisting 18 tyres, as such, they should be allowed to carry full laden weight of 45.200/44.200 Tonnes, which has been rightly mentioned in their Registration Certificates. In our opinion, this submission C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -6- has been considered by the State Transport Commissioner and the same has been rightly rejected. It is not disputed before us that the drawings of the vehicles of the aforesaid two Models have been approved by the State Transport Commissioner, Punjab and according to those drawings, the respective vehicles of the petitioners could be provided with 4 axles having 14 tyres. Therefore, one additional axle and four tyres have been provided in their vehicles by the petitioners at their own. The Regional Transport Authority has also taken note of the notification dated 18.10.1996 issued by the Government of India, according to which, the maximum gross weight in respect of four axle vehicles having 14 tyres has been fixed at 35.2 Tonnes and the owners of such vehicles cannot be allowed to carry weight in their vehicles more than what has been fixed by the aforesaid notification. In view of the aforesaid notification, in our view, the petitioners cannot be permitted to carry more weight on their vehicles merely on the ground that they have increased the axles and tyres at their own and in the Registration Certificates, which have been wrongly issued, they have been permitted to carry weight of 45.200/44.200 Tonnes, respectively. In our opinion, the public safety on the road is more important than the business interest of the petitioners. Even M/s TATA Motors Limited, Chandigarh, manufacturer of TATA LPS 3015 and LPS 3516 Model Vehicles, vide its letter dated 21.5.2007 has clarified that the maximum Gross Vehicle Weight of these vehicles is 30,000 Kg. and 35,200 Kg., respectively. Further, if those vehicles are being allowed to ply on the road with the increase number of tyres, which is not permitted for these Models as per the drawings, with extra weight, it will cause danger to the C.W.P. No. 5656 of 2007 -7- travelling public on the road. Thus, the prayer made by the petitioners cannot be accepted and in our view the Regional Transport Authority has rightly rejected the prayer of the petitioners. Thus, no ground for interference in exercise of writ jurisdiction is made out. Dismissed. (SATISH KUMAR MITTAL) JUDGE April 22, 2008 (RAKESH KUMAR GARG) vkg JUDGE