KAVINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This intra-Court appeal, under Chapter VIII Rule 5 of the Allahabad High Court Rules, is preferred against the interlocutory order passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ Petition (M/S) No. 378 of 2020 dated 18.02.2020.

(2.) The appellants herein filed Writ Petition (M/S) No. 378 of 2020 seeking a writ of certiorari to quash the Minutes of the Meeting of the District Mining Committee dated 03.01.2020 to the extent it had directed commercial registration of tractors in order to transport river-bed material from the mining lot of the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation; a writ of certiorari to quash Entry No. 3A of the notification dated 02.01.2019, whereby tax is imposed on tractors as commercial motor vehicles which are used other than for agricultural purposes; and a writ of certiorari to quash the advertisement dated 04.01.2020 whereby the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation, in purported compliance of the order of this Court in Writ Petition (PIL) No. 162 of 2018 dated 26.10.2018, had imposed a pre-condition that tractors should be registered as commercial motor vehicles to transport river-bed material, from the mining lot, to the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation.

(3.) Facts, to the limited extent necessary, are that the appellants- writ petitioners are the owners of tractors-cum-trailers. The District Mining Committee decided on 03.01.2020 to permit only tractors with commercial registration to transport river-bed material. In terms thereof, tractors, registered for agricultural purposes, are prohibited from transporting river-bed material within the limits of the reserved forest. While a tractor, as a motor vehicle, requires registration under the Motor Vehicles Act, the third respondent-Corporation also grants a license for such tractors to ply within the reserve forest to carry river-bed material. The appellants-writ petitioners apprehend that, in addition to not permitting them to carry river bed material, the third respondent- Corporation is likely to cancel their license also.