S P DHANDAPANI PONDICHERRY Vs. STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has filed the above writ petition to call for the records in F. No. TD/TP. 1/11/92 dated 4-3-1992 on the file of the 1st respondent and quash the same and for any other appropriate order or direction.

(2.) The petitioner's grievance is that in spite of the fact that his permit on the route Cuddalore to Tindivanam was directed to be renewed by the State Transport Appellate Tribunal, Pondicherry, the 1st respondent, in spite of his repeated requests, did not make the necesssary endorsement of the said renewal in his stage carriage permit effecting the renewal from 4-1-1988 to 4-1-1993. According to the writ petitioner, his permit alone for the Inter-State route Cuddalore to Tindivanam via Pondicherry is covered by the Inter-State agreement for the portions lying within the limits of Union Territory of Pondicherry. But, suddenly, by proceedings dated 4-3-1992, the 1st respondent, purporting to implement the order of the State Transport Appellate Tribunal, Pondicherry, in M.V. Appeal No. 1 of 1992, renewing his stage carriage permit on the route Cuddalore to Tindivanam via Pondicherry, stated that the renewal is given subject to payment of tax to the Tamil Nadu Government, which, according to the petitioner, is totally unwarranted and illegal.

(3.) The case of the writ petitioner is, that he was operating a stage carriage permit on the route Cuddalore to Tindivanam via Pondicherry, granted in reciprocal agreement between the Governments of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Pondicherry, by which one stage carriage permit with single point tax payable in Pondicherry, was granted on the route Cuddalore to Tindivanam via Pondicherry, by the Pondicherry Authority. He has been operating the same by paying tax in Pondicherry from 1974, and the said permit has been renewed by the Proceedings of the State Transport Appellate Tribunal, Pondicherry, in M.V. Appeal No. 1 of 1992. The renewed permit is continuation of the original permit and as such, after renewal, the petitioner is entitled to the same benefit of single point tax payable in Pondicherry, which he has paid, and the same cannot be taken away suddenly by the 1st respondent.