INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES Vs. REGIONAL TRAPT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In these three appeals, the question that arises for determination is whether an omnibus engaged by an employer for transporting exclusively his employees between their nous is and his factory, for which service he (the employer) collects fares from his employees, should be treated as a contract carriage or merely an omnibus for the purpose of levy of tax under the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

(2.) The appellants who were the writ petitioners (hereinafter referred to as the Companies) are Govt Companies in which all the shares are held by the State. Their factories are located in the outskirts at Bangalore.. Each of them has been maintaining a flcet of omnibuses to provide transport facility to its employees between their houses and its factory. For providing such transport facility, they collect fares from their respective employees by deducting such fares from their salaries or wages. Such fares are small compared to the cost of providing such transport facility and the Companies subsidise their respective transport services.

(3.) For these vehicles, the Companies had obtained contract carriage permits under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The Regional Transport Authority which granted such permits, had endorsed on each of the permits three conditions, one of which read as follows :