Court gives relief to people as no new registration for non local vehicles

By: Musaib Iqbal MK

Srinagar

A huge relief was given by Jammu and Kashmir high court to the hundreds of vehicle owners here as it quashed the recent order of RTO Kashmir asking the people for re-registration of their vehicles brought from outside Jammu and Kashmir.

The delegation of vehicle owners met the authorities for the quashing of this order, but they were forced by the attitude of bureaucracy to move to the high court to get relief.

According to the advocate being quoted by news agency KDC, the division bench of JK high court quashed the order today, according to KDC quoting the lawyer, “Now as per the quashement of the order issued by RTO by the Hon’ble High Court, car owners with outside registration number can drive the vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir or in any other state. There is no need to re-register or pay any token tax,” he told KDC.

While quashing the order of RTO Kashmir, the division bench ordered that the life time tax that is levied at the point of registration of a vehicle in terms of Section 3 of the Motor Vehicles Act, cannot be levied on a vehicle registered, merely on a presumption that a vehicle registered outside Union Territory of JK, has remained in the Union Territory of J-K for a period exceeding 12 months.

The bench ordered that the impugned circular to the extent of asking the petitioners (car owners) to have their vehicles registered for assignment of new registration mark with without their declaration in tune with the mandate of Rule 54 of Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and without providing any mechanism, is quashed, reported News Agency KDC.

The LG administration had issued a circular last month to re register all those vehicles with outside registration numbers with the concerned RTO offices which caused suffering and panic to those people which had bought vehicles from outside states.

Car owners with outside registration numbers termed the high court judgment a big relief for them. The circular by RTO had hit the car business in Jammu and Kashmir.

With inputs from KDC