IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MRS JUSTICE T.MEENA KUMARI A N D THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT PETITION NO : 19779 of 2008 Between: Sk.Imtiyaz S/o. Nanne Jan R.N Pet Nellore Sri Potti Sriramulu, Nellore District ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The Secretary Regional Transport Authority Nellore Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore District 2 The Motor Vehicles Inspector Kadapa District, Kadapa .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue a writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction declaring the action of the respondents in Seizing the petitioner Vehicle bearing No. KA 03B-554 on 05-09-2008 vide V.C.R No.2368578 by the 2nd respondent as arbitrary illegal and further direct the respondents to release the said vehicle to the petitioner pending enquiry and pass such other suitable orders as this Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.P.VENKATA RAO Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR TRANSPORT The Division Bench of this Court made the following order: THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE T. MEENA KUMARI AND THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN WRIT PETITION NO. 1 9 7 7 9 OF 2008 O R D E R : (Per the Hon’ble Smt. Justice T. Meena Kumari) 1. The writ petition is ﬁled seeking mandamus to declare the action of respondents in seizing the petitioner’s vehicle bearing Regdn.No.KA-03B-554 on vide 05-9-2008 vide V.C.R.No.236878 by the second respondent as arbitrary, illegal and further to direct the respondents to release the said vehicle to the petitioner, pending inquiry and to pass such other suitable orders as this Court may deem ﬁt and proper in the circumstances of the case. 2. The facts in brief are as follows: It is stated that on 05-9-2008 when the vehicle of the petitioner, which is being operated as ‘Taxi Cab’ was proceeding from Nellore towards Kadapa, the second respondent checked the vehicle and issued Check Report No. 2368578 on the ground that the vehicle of the petitioner was found with ﬁfteen persons in all and as per RC the seating capacity of the said vehicle in all is eleven but on physical veriﬁcation the seating capacity of the said vehicle instead of eleven it was ﬁfteen. The second respondent opined that the said vehicle is being used as C.C. w/o. payment of requisite tax and permit for ﬁfteen persons and D.L., not produced, PUCC expired on 13-8-2008. Thereby, the second respondent seized the vehicle under section 207 (1) of the Motor Vehicles Act and Section 8 of A.P.M.V. Act and kept the vehicle at APSRTC Bus Depot, Kadapa for safe custody. Further the second respondent directed the petitioner to pay Rs.55,450-00 without any valid reason and without any calculations. In view of the above, the action of the second respondent is highly arbitrary, illegal in insisting the petitioner to pay the amount without any inquiry and without issuing any show cause notice to him. 3. Sri P.Venkat Rao, the learned counsel representing the petitioner seeks to contend that in this case there is no independent evidence from any third parties and in the absence of the allegations levelled by the Checking Oﬃcer against the petitioner cannot be held to be true and the same cannot be relied upon. He further contended that the driver of the petitioner produced all relevant documents before the checking oﬃcials but the checking oﬃcials without verifying the same had issued the check report and seized the vehicle and thereafter kept at APSRTC Bus Depot, Kadapa. If the said vehicle is not released and if it is exposed to sun and rain it will be spoiled and moreover the dependents of the petitioner will sustain great hardship. 4. The contentions raised by the counsel for the petitioner is vehemently opposed by the learned Government Pleader for Transport and further submitted that on 05-9-2008 when the second respondent stopped the vehicle bearing Regdn.No.KA-03B-0554, which was proceeding from Nellore to Kadapa with 15 persons in all and found as per R.C., the seating capacity for the said vehicle is only 11 in all. On physical veriﬁcation, the second respondent found the seating capacity of the said vehicle is 15. The vehicle is ﬁxed with four seats extra w/o. prior permission. Thereby the vehicle is used as C.C. w/o. payment of requisite tax and permit for 15 persons. Therefore, the vehicle is being used as All India Tourist C.C. (2) D.L., not produced (3) PUCC expired on 13-8-2008. The second respondent, therefore, seized the said vehicle under section 207 (1) of the Motor Vehicles Act and Section 8 of the A.P.M.V.T. Act and handed over to security guard, APSRTC Depot, Kadapa and advised to obtain release from DTC Kadapa, and thereby directed the R.O. to pay tax of Rs.51,450/- and compounding fee of Rs.4000/- . 5. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Govt.Pleader for Transport. 6. In view of the above contentions and having regard to the fact that enquiry is pending, without expressing any opinion on merits of the matter, we deem it appropriate to dispose of the writ petition at the stage of admission with a direction to the respondents to release the vehicle bearing Regdn.No.KA03B-0554 seized under check report no.2368578, dated 05-9-2008 subject to the condition of payment of 50% of the tax assessed by the second respondent and further condition that the admitted tax is paid and on furnishing an undertaking to the eﬀect that the vehicle in question will not be alienated and no encumbrance will be created and shall produce the said vehicle as and when required by the respondents. It is also made clear that the amount paid pursuant to this order, shall be subject to the result of the enquiry. 7. With the above directions, the writ petition is disposed of at the stage of admission. No costs. ------------------------------------- JUSTICE T. MEENA KUMARI. ----------------------------------------------- JUSTICE RAMESH RANGANATHAN. 15-9-2008. I s L N B : 1) Operative Portion of the order by wire at party’s costs. 2) Furnish CC of the order in three days. B/o. I s L . ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{BMR}