MANSOOR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As the issue involved in all these writ petitions is the same, they are taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common judgment.

(2.) In all these writ petitions, the petitioners seek to challenge the amendments introduced in the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1976, by the Kerala Finance Act, 2016. It is pointed out that, through the said amendment, the petitioners and other like stage carriage operators, who had their stage carriages registered with the Motor Vehicles Department after 18.07.2016, have been made liable to motor vehicle tax, on the basis of the floor area of the vehicle, as against the earlier scheme of taxation, which was based on seating/standing capacity of the vehicle concerned. It is pointed out that the amendment introduces a cutoff date of 18.07.2016, and makes only those stage carriages which were registered after the said date, subject to the new system of levy of tax, on the basis of floor area, whereas, existing stage carriage operators, whose vehicles were registered prior to 18.07.2016, continue to pay tax as per the erstwhile system, based on the seating/standing capacity of the vehicle in question. To appreciate the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners in these writ petitions, it would be necessary, at the outset, to notice the statutory provisions under the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, as obtained prior to, and after the amendment, that was introduced through the Finance Act, 2016.

(3.) In the Schedule to the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, serial No.7(iii), prior to the amendment dated 18.07.2016, read as follows:-