[JoseVijay]

More confusion now after High Court issues notice to Telangana State Government

Source link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/39645943.cms

HYDERABAD: Questioning yet another GO issued by the Telangana government, the Hyderabad high court on Monday directed it to explain within 24 hours as to which law empowered it to ask the vehicle owners to go for a re-registration of their vehicles and add TS to their number plates in place of AP.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar told the state's transport counsel to come with a reply to them by Tuesday.

The bench gave this direction while hearing a plea by J Rammohan Chowdary, a Hyderabad-based motorcycle owner, who raised an objection to the decision of the Telangana government that issued GO No. 3 on June 17, 2014 that directed all vehicle owners to change their number plates from AP to TS through a process of re-registration. When the arguments of his lawyer were progressing in a way that did not suit his cause, the petitioner, who was sitting in the gallery, stood up suddenly and raised an objection. The chief justice summoned him to the court hall and upon a request from the petitioner, allowed him to disengage the services of his lawyer and argue the case on his own.

Rammohan then told the court that he was aggrieved with the way the Telangana government is treating the people from the Andhra region. According to him, earlier when new states were formed, existing vehicle owners were allowed to retain their old registrations and the new registrations alone were carried out with the name of the new state. "Even in Telangana, the vehicles that carry the registration numbers of Karnataka, Kerala and other states are being allowed to ply freely without any change in their registration plates. Mere payment of road tax is enough for them. But those owners whose vehicles carry the tag of AP should necessarily change their registration from AP to TS. This is discriminatory and hence unconstitutional," Rammohan said while arguing emotionally as to why they should undergo this "state-sponsored bulldozing" despite being a part and parcel of this region. It goes against the Central Motor Vehicles Act and also the AP Reorgansiation Act.

The bench then sought to know as to how Telangana derived its power for issuing its re-registration GO. When asked, Telangana transport department counsel said the GO in question was only a preliminary notification and that nothing has been finalized yet by the state.

"If you have the power, you can do it. But first show from where you are deriving your power. Which law empowered you to do so?" the bench questioned the counsel who sought some time to answer this query. The bench posted the matter to Tuesday for further hearing and directed the Telangana counsel to come with a clear reply.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

More confusion now after High Court issues notice to Telangana State Government

Lol. Nice to see someone raise a concern on this issue and the high court acting on the positive side. IMO, it would be better if the transport department stops the renewal procedure for already registered vehicle by letting it be AP rather than TS.

It will save time and money.

Anurag.

[Cyrus_the_virus]

"Even in Telangana, the vehicles that carry the registration numbers of Karnataka, Kerala and other states are being allowed to ply freely without any change in their registration plates. Mere payment of road tax is enough for them. But those owners whose vehicles carry the tag of AP should necessarily change their registration from AP to TS. This is discriminatory and hence unconstitutional"

A very valid point. It never hit me that out of state vehicles need not change registration and can just pay the tax.

[zenren]

There seems to be some confusion here. As per this report, the guy is claiming that vehicles registered at current AP RTOs are asked to change to TS plates, which is something I'm hearing for the first time.

I thought that only the AP registered vehicles with RTO codes which now fall in Telangana need to be changed to TS-XX, based on the report I saw in Deccan Chronicle. Is that not the case?

[simplyself]

One thing I do not understand is that the application for reservation of registration number should be accompanied by nativity certificate in original.

Apparently, the nativity certificate is not required for registration but is needed only if one reserves a particular number.

[umvarma]

Originally Posted by Cyrus_the_virus

A very valid point. It never hit me that out of state vehicles need not change registration and can just pay the tax.

I agree. I came across another of such valid points from comments on one such article.

Any vehicle registered in the combined state, paid the taxes and got the vehicle registered for plying in the 23 districts of combined state. Now if the number is changed to TS from AP, then this vehicle will become the local vehicle of Telangana and can ply freely in the 10 districts only. This vehicle will become a non local vehicle in AP's 13 districts. It can only ply for limited period and if that period is crossed, separate tax is to be paid to the other Govt. Any person will now judge that change of number is disadvantageous.

I have not thought about this earlier. The way things are going between AP & TS governments, it won't be long before AP/TS announces a crackdown on TS/AP vehicles staying in their states for more than one or two months and demand the road tax for that state from the vehicle owners.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by umvarma

it won't be long before AP/TS announces a crackdown on TS/AP vehicles staying in their states for more than one or two months and demand the road tax for that state from the vehicle owners.

That would get shot down in court easily. Till the new state formation, even if someone in AP buys a currently-in-TS-RTO registered car (used car) or vice versa, he was not allowed to change the registration to his district code since the car was already registered to the same state. The lifetime tax that was paid for this car also went to the treasury of the unified state. So neither state can demand that the owner pay the tax again which would lead to double taxation for the same purpose.

[akshaykakkar]

The fact of the matter is nobody including the transport department knows what to do with this conundrum.
After a quarter of an year of assuming office, there has been no clear public notification of the process to be followed.
So for me, this thing is nothing that worries me anymore.

They'll take really long to sort their own house and then only direct the public at large.
At least another year from now.

[umvarma]

Originally Posted by zenren

That would get shot down in court easily.

Courts may shoot down such proposal. But there is no way that we can take it for granted.

Originally Posted by zenren

Till the new state formation, even if someone in AP buys a currently-in-TS-RTO registered car (used car) or vice versa, he was not allowed to change the registration to his district code since the car was already registered to the same state. The lifetime tax that was paid for this car also went to the treasury of the unified state.

Yes. The vehicle is not allowed to re-register in a different district in the same state. But, now the GO orders people to re-register. These two things are contrary to each other. I am not sure if this logic applies here.

Originally Posted by zenren

So neither state can demand that the owner pay the tax again which would lead to double taxation for the same purpose.

Law is not mere logic and common sense. I am not a lawyer, don't have much proficiency of the motor laws, and I have not read the GO. I have no idea if the procedures and clauses for this kind of re-registration are mentioned separately from the inter-state re-registrations in the motor law. If I understand correctly, there is no precedence, and if no separate provisions and clauses are mentioned, this whole argument may be thrown out because, a re-registration invalidates older registration and one can no longer claim that we have the right to ply our vehicles in the other state indefinitely.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by umvarma

If I understand correctly, there is no precedence, and if no separate provisions and clauses are mentioned, this whole argument may be thrown out because, a re-registration invalidates older registration and one can no longer claim that we have the right to ply our vehicles in the other state indefinitely.

This is what the court asked the government already:

"If you have the power, you can do it. But first show from where you are deriving your power. Which law empowered you to do so?"

Without a precedent and no specific clause already in the rules, it would be government's responsibility to show how they have the power to impose something like that. It is Central Motor Vehicles Rule - so from what I understand, it is not a state list item for the TS govt to change the existing rule.

Again, all these might be valid only till the vehicles complete 15 years. Whenever it needs to be re-registered after the existing registration expires, they might have to be assigned a TS number registered under TS.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

More confusion now after High Court issues notice to Telangana State Government

Source link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/39645943.cms

The following is the reply filed by the Telangana government in the HC

Source Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/40137322.cms

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government told the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday that it is in favour of re-registration of vehicles in Telangana, but maintained that it has neither taken any final decision on the issue nor issued any final notification. The state government had earlier issued a GO in this regard and the same was challenged by one J Rammohan Chowdary of Hyderabad.

The petitioner complained that the GO was issued asking all vehicle owners to change their number plates from AP to TS through a process of re-registration and this was without jurisdiction.

Following a directive from the HC, the state filed its counter affidavit stating that it issued a preliminary notification proposing a new rule duly making amendment to the Telangana Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, for re-assignment of registration numbers, vide GO No. 3 to ensure conformity with the TS group of letters assigned to Telangana by the Centre.

In its counter affidavit, the government said that the preliminary notification was issued only to call for objections and suggestions on the proposed amendment to provide re-assignment of registration number for the existing motor vehicles as on June 2, 2014.

The said GO does not deal with tax matters as alleged by the petitioner, the state clarified. It further said that it is issuing detailed guidelines and time schedule for re-assignment of numbers.

Adequate time would be given to facilitate vehicle owners to make changes in the number plates and certificate of registration consequent to re-assignment.

The transport department would initiate necessary steps to ensure completion of re-assignment of old vehicles in the interest of citizens and safeguard revenue collection to improve citizen friendly transport services, it added.

In the last hearing, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar directed the Telangana government to state as to which law is empowering it to issue such GOs and also to state whether any rules have been framed and notified regarding the decision to ask vehicle owners to go for re-registration and change the number plates.

[vrrraju]

This is really confusing to me. Today or tomorrow the Central Government will declare the respective states about the registration. I have bought Swift an year ago and registered in Hyderabad (AP-28). If my plans workout, I would be moving to Andhra may be few years from now. Then how is it going to be, do I need to re-register it in Andhra and then claim for refund from Telangana state. And I am sure there has been lot of confusion and also the contract for High Security Plates was supposed to be done by APSRTC/TSRTC. Their assets are still not divided yet. I have few doubts, how was this handled when other states were bifurcated, like Madhya Pradesh and Chastisgarh or Bihar and Jharkand.

[Chetan_Rao]

Is it really so difficult? We have a few instances of state bifurcation in the recent past, how was this handled in those cases? What's the problem in replicating the same model?


Slightly off-topic, but this is just another compelling case for doing away with local state RTOs. Cars should be register by state for domicile/documentation/statistical purposes, but pay a normalized national road tax and drive/live wherever you feel like without the repeated road-tax and registration nonsense. Moving states has become a nightmare with these ridiculous laws, I personally bore the brunt a few years ago moving my car to Karnataka.

[JoseVijay]

There is still no clarity on part of the Telangana State Government with regard to the re-registration of the vehicles bought prior to bifurcation. I think it might take them more time to come to a conclusion and come out with a policy.

I agree with many here, that the re-registration process is a head ache for many, not a hassel-free one and would also make us poorer by a few hundreds or thousands of rupees.

[sadsack]

It does seem now that despite the hatred that the TS CM has to AP he has no option but to go with status quo ante for the old vehicles. The High Court has asked the government as to where they drew their power to demand the change. Another problem is that vehicles registered prior to bifurcation can ply in both states since the road tax was then collected by the undivided state. To change now would mean that vehicles despite paying road tax to the undivided state and having the right to ply in both states; will have to pay additional tax in case of someone going to AP from TS for a job. This would mean that you are making someone pay tax twice and that is apparently not acceptable. So if KCR the CM can see sense things will be as they are for the older vehicles. But what we have seen is that KCR and sense are antithetical to each other.