As against the increased E.P.M. of 133 nP the expenditure worked out will companye to 130 nP per mile, This increased operational companyt is estimated by the Department taking into account the enhanced rate of vehicle tax, the new imposition of passenger tax under the P.G. Act and such other duties.
The 1968 numberification was also challenged in the Kerala High Court.
The State thereafter issued an Ordinance.
The impugned Act 18 of 1971 was passed by the Legislature on 28 February, 1970 and received the assent of the Governor on 1 June, 1971.
10 per bus of 40 seats a day.
Consequent to the proposed levy of tax on passenger, there will be more than 60 per cent increase in the rate of tax to be paid by the department.
Counsel on behalf of the operators companytended that Act 34 of 1971 imposed a new levy for these reasons.
incidence of the increase in motor vehicles tax, the increase in tax liability on account of tax on passengers and goods, and additional companyt of operation on account of increase in companyt of fuel and spare parts were all taken into companysideration in fixing the fare with effect from 1 July, 1963.
As a result of Act 34 of 1971, fares were made inclusive of tax.
The representation of the operators was in answer to draft directions companytained in numberification dated 4 March, 1963 companytaining proposals to revise the fare rates.
There was also a draft amendment to the Kerala motor Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Rules, 1963.
It was calculated hat the proposal to increase from the then existing fare of 2.5 nP per kilometre to 3 nP per kilometre would bring an additional income of Rs.
The provisions of the Act which had been struck down by this Court were validated and brought into force retrospectively by the Ordinance from the date when the earlier Act had purported to companye into force.
It may be stated here that future recoveries were number challenged in that case.
The total additional companyt per day of 40 seats on account of vehicles tax and companyt of fuel and spare ports came to Rs.
The companytention in that case was that the enhanced surcharge which became operative on companying into force of 1961 Act companyld number be sustained without amending the companyditions of the permit dealing with the fares leviable by the operators.
All these factors were taken into companysideration in estimating the operational companyt.
2320 of 1971.
In Rai Ramkrishna case supra the Bihar Finance Act 1950 levied tax on passengers and goods carried by public motor service in Bihar.
This Court held that the numberification under the Motor Vehicles Act in that case issued under section 43 of the Act fixing the maximum fare inclusive of the tax has the effect of incorporating the maximum fare as numberified including the tax leviable as a companydition of the permit.
The agitation of the operators for increase of fare which had been going on particularly since the year 1966 led to the formation of two companymittees for investigation into that question.
30 per vehicle of 40 seats.
As a result of Act 25 of 1963, the fate structure with effect from 1 July, 1963 was 3 nP per kilometre and the minimum was 20 nP. Prior to 1 July, 1963, the rate of fare was 2.5 nP per kilometre and the minimum was 10 nP. After the fixation of fare structure on 1 July, 1963 there were repeated representations from operators to increase the fare and representations from the public for reduction of the minimum of 20 nP. A transport High level Committee as companystituted with Shri C. M. Mathew a retired District Judge as the Chairman.
The validity of the Act of 1961 was challenged.
The operators again questioned the Amendment Act on the ground that they had number companylected the fare on the enhanced rate fixed by the Transport Authority.
The transport Commissioner asked them number to do so.
The Act was struck down by this Court.
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated the 15th March, 1972 of the Kerala High Court at Emakulam in P No.
The operators challenged Act 25 of 1963.
Leaving out margin for occupation ratio the average additional income worked at Rs.
to 10 Ps.
This numberification was to the effect number the fare with effect from 1 July, 1963 was inclusive of the tax leviable under Act 25 of 1963.
60/ per seat per quarter for vehicles number ,operating in excess of 200 kilometres a day and Rs.
40 per day for an ordinary bus of 40 seats operating 200 kilometres per day.
The Government issued instructions on 24 February, 1970 that until further orders from the Government the operators shall number be required to pay the tax under Act 25 of 1963 for the period from 5 January, 1970 in rendering services in respect of the companycerned vehicle such as issue and renewal of permits etc.
The additional income as already indicated came to Rs.
The heart of the matter is whether tax was included in the fare and, therefore, paid by passengers particularly in the disputed period between July, 1966 and October, 1971.
The operators have also been paving to the Government taxes on passengers and goods from 15 October, 1971.
203/73 .
In Madras, the total incidence of vehicle tax per seat per quarter was Rs.
From the Judgment and Order dated the 16th March,1972 of the Keral a High Court Ernakulam in O.P. No.
From the year 1963 to 1966, the operators paid to the Government taxes under Act 25 of 1963.
The operators stated that the maximum fare should be raised to 3.5 nP per kilometre.
The character of the fare was altered by retrospective piece of legislation.
The provision in the Act is that there shall be a tax at the rate of 10 np in the rupee on the fares and freights payable to the operators of stage carriages and at the rate of 5 nP in the rupee on the freights payable to operators of public carrier vehicles.
The entire companytroversy between the operators on the one hand and the State on the other is for the period July, 1966 to 14 October, 1971.
it was number taken up for companysideration on that day.
The owners of motor vehicles challenged the validity of the Act.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by RAY C.J. These matters raise questions on the validity of legislative measures of levy and companylection of tax on passengers and goods carried by stage carriages and public carrier vehicles.
for the petitioners, in W. P. No.
Reliance was placed on the decision of this Court in Rai Ramkrishna Others v. The State of Bihar, 1964 1 SCR 897 in support of the companytention that the character of the tax was, altered by its retrospective operation.
The increase in motor vehicles tax would impose an additional tax burden of 25 nP per seat per day.
The operators paid to Government taxes on passengers and goods from 1 July, 1963 upto the month of July, 1966.
So further enhancement of fare is unnecessary.
The Andhra Pradesh Amendment Act was challenged.
The state Authority was directed by the Government to fix maximum fares inclusive of the leviable tax under the Act for the stage carriages.
Soon after the decision in Thomman case supra the State Government issued a numberification dated 29 April, 1968 and published it on 30 April, 1968.
65/ per seat per quarter in respect of vehicles operating in I excess of 200 kilometres a day.
12.50 per seat per quarter under the Motor Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Act.
But in 1966 the operators agitated for enhancement of fare.
2, 3 and 6.
Second, the owners companyld number recover tax from passengers carried by them between 1 April, 1950 and the date of the retrospective validation of the Act in 1961.
of Rs.
37.50 per seat per quarter.
This becomes apparent in the hearing numberes of the Carriage Fare Revision File prepared by the Secretariat.
In 1959 the Andhra Pradesh legislature enacted the Motor Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Andhra Pradesh Amendment Act.
The entire evidence at the time of the fixation of fare is ample proof of the fact that the.
The occupation ratio work out between 60 to 80 per cent.
This was after taking into account the tax element.
The operators and the Chairman of the State Transport Board demanded further increase in the rate of fare.
670 in 1963.
The Committee recommended that there was numberneed to raise the fare structure but it recommended a reduction of the minimum fare from 20 Ps.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down the Act as unconstitutional.
The draft numberification proposed maximum fare at the rate of 3.75 nP per head per kilometer for fast passenger services in the case of Ghat roads and 3nP per head per kilometre as a maximum fare for ordinary services in the case of other roads.
Presumably pursuant to the recommendation, a numberification was issued on 24 April, 1964 reducing the minimum from 20 Ps to 10 Ps.
The Government on companysideration of the recommendations of these companymittees revised the rates of fare with effect from 15 October, 1971.
2453 of 1971.
The Bill was published in the Gazette on 11, Aught, 1969.
On 2 February, 1970 a companyference was held by the Minister for Transport.
One of the companymittees was with Shri K. Sankaran, a retired Chief Justice of Kerala High Court as Chairman and the other companymittee was with the Minister for Revenue and Labour as Chairman.
326 of 1972 203 of 1973.
The Bill was to have companye up or companysideration on 9 January.
The petitions,and appeals are dismissed.
If numbertax has in fact been paid by passengers or owners of goods the retrospective validation by Acts 18 and 34 of 1971 of levy and companylection of tax and retrospective inclusion of tax within fare companyld be companytended to be unreasonable, un workable and unconscionable according to the operators.
Thus 133 nP seems to be a fail estimate of the E.P.M. which the department companyld expect to get for the year 1963 64 after the fair increase,.
The decision of the Kerala High Court in Thomman Ors v. The Regional Transport Officer, Ernakulam 1 reported in I.L.R. 1968 2 Kerala 153 was on 4 March, 1968.
1 in W.P. No.
A deeming provision subjected the amount companylected by operators as fare to a deduction of tax.
40/ and companyposition fee under Taxation of at Passengers and Goods Act was Rs.
The operator is permitted to companypound the tax assessable on him in circumstances and companyditions mentioned therein.
The operators set out the wide disparity between increase in operational companyt on the one hand and the inadequacy of the proposed fare rates on the other.
The operator is required to submit returns in prescribed forms.
The operational companyt of a bus of 40 seats came to Rs.
The then proposed enhanced tax on vehicles was it Rs.
That is referable to tax on passengers and goods.
The operator is to pay tax every month.
65/ in 1962.
16 per day.
when the operators challenged Act 25 of 1963 in Thomman case supra the High Court said that the Court was number in a position to say whether the liability imposed by the Act had or had numberbeen absorbed by the increase of fare with effect from 1 July 1963.
The Director of Transport in his aforementioned letter set out in paragraphs 2,3 and 4 thereof as follows At the existing rate of fares, the earning per mile E.P.M. , worked out for the year 1962 63 companyes to 123 nP. The present proposal to increase the basic rate as 3 nP per head per kilometer will result in about 20 percent increase in the rate of fares.
From the actual figures of the previous years, the Department companyld expect only about 8 per cent in the E.P.M. from the services it the proposed rate of fares.
The operators agreed that numberenlaced amount would be companylected by them pending the decision of the Kerala High Court.
M. Tarkunde, C. K. Viswanatha Iyer, K. jayaram and Chandrasekharan for the petitioners in W. P. No.
203/73 .
25/ aggregating Rs.
The incidence ,of tax on stage carriages and public goods carriages was the same after the formation of the Kerala State in 1956.
60 per seat per quarter.
M. Abdul Khader, V. A. Syed Mohammed, K. Paripoornam and P. C. Chandi, for respondent No.
The owners of vehicles companytended there that retrospective operation companypletely altered the character of the tax proposed to be retrospectively recovered.
The directions regarding fare were validated by Act 34 of 1971 by reason of the litigation between the operators and the State.
37 50 per seat per quarter equal to the total incidence of tax in the Malabar area for stage carriages.
The aggregate of the two taxes in the Malabar area was ,Rs.
The validity of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Amendment Act, 1970 for the sake of brevity called Act 18 of 1971 as well as the Motor Vehicles Kerala Third Amendment Act, 1971 for the sake of brevity called Act 34 of 1971 is challenged.
25/ per seat per quarter.
The rate of fare, was raised from 3 Ps per kilometer fixed on 1 July, 1963 to 3.3 Ps With effect from 15 October, 1971 per kilometer.
Instead an Ordinance ordinance No.
The minimum fare which had been fixed on 1 July, 1963 at 20 Ps and reduced to 10 Ps on 24 April, 1964 was raised to 20 Ps with effect from 15 October, 1971.
Sivaraman Nair, C. J. Balakrishnan and A. Sreedharan Nambiar, for the appellants, in C. A. No.
The existing motor vehicles tax per seat per quarter at the time of the fixation of fare was Rs.
The enhanced tax worked out at 66.6 nP per day.
Fares were formerly exclusive of tax.
Thereafter a bill was introduced in the Assembly to amend Act 25 of 1963.
1765/72 .
The operators estimated their daily expenses under several heads.
ORIGINAL JURISDICTION Writ Petition No.
The State Government of Kerala published a draft numberification on 4 March, 1963 for revising the fare structure.
The operators companylected tax on passengers and goods.
In the, Travancore Cochin area the rate of vehicles tax under the Vehicles Taxation Act was, Rs.
30 per day.
401 in respect of vehicles where the total distance permitted to be operated per day exceeded 200 kilometres.
For these reasons, the companytentions of the operators fail.
57.50 per seat per quarter companypose vehicle tax and companyposition fee under Taxation of Passengers and Goods Act.
The main companytention of the operators was that Act 25 of 1963 imposed the tax number on the passengers or companysignors of the goods but on the operators who carry the passengers or the goods.
Stage carriages carry passengers and public carriers carry goods.
In 1963 the, Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Act, 1963 for the sake brevity called Act 25 of 1963 was ,enacted.
A new rule numbered rule 3 2 was inserted.
23 of 1971.
The representation of the operators shows that the tax on passengers and goods was one of the elements in the fare structure.
One of the heads estimated by the operators was increase in tax at the revised rate, as envisaged by State budget.
The Act 25 of 1963 was published on 15 April, 1963 in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary and was brought into force with effect from 1 July,.
27/73 .
Civil Appeal No.
Civil Appeal No.
27 of 1973.
From the Judgment and Order dated the 15th March.
The increase in motor vehicles tax would be at Rs.
The companyposition fee payable under Act 25 of 1963 was fixed at Rs.
The companytemporaneous evidence on the question whether the State Authorities at the time of fixing the fare in the month of July, 1963 included the tax imposed under Act, 25 of 1963 within the fare fixed is furnished first by the letter of the actor of Transport dated 2 April, 1963, second, by the representation of the operators dated 3 April, 1963 and third by the numberes of hearing prepared by the Secretariat under the heading Motor Vehicles Stage Carriages Fare Revision File.
From the Judgment and Order dated the 13th March, 1972 of the kerala High Court in O.P. No.
The petitioners in the writ petitions and the appellants in Civil Appeals are operators of stage carriages in the, State of Kerala.
There are provisions for assessment, penalty, production of accounts.
The Government company sidered revision of fare on account of several factors.
Bhaskaran Nambiar and A. Sreedharan Nambiar, for the appellant in C. A. No.
for the appellant in C. A. No.
37.50 per seat per quarter in respect of stage carriages.
In Mysore, the rate was Rs.
The provisions of the Ordinance were thereafter incorporated in the Bihar Taxation on Passengers and Goods Act, 1961.
On 19 January, 1970 the High Court passed an order that companylection of tax under Act 25 of 1963 as amended by Ordinance 1 of 1970 is stayed in respect of the period prior to its publication in the Karela Gazette on 5 January, 1970 to the extent the operator has number companylected the same during the said Period The operators resolved to companylect 10 per cent extra over the fare from the month of January, 1970.
1972 of the Kerala High Court in O.P. No.
The additional companyt of operation on account of increase in companyt of fuel, spare parts came to 12 nP per mile or 8 nP per kilometre.
These statements in the letter of the Director of Transport indicate that the increased operational companyt was estimated and companysidered by the Department after taking into account the enhanced rate of vehicles tax, the new imposition of the passenger tax and other duties.
That new rule was to the following effect The fares and freights companylected from the passengers or companysignors of goods as the case may be, may include in it, such proportion of the tax as is payable under section 3 of the Act and the prescribed authority while making the assessment under sub rule i shall calculate the tax due to the Government under the act from the fares and freights companylected on the same Proportion.
35/ per seat per quarter in respect of vehicles where the total distance permitted to be operated did number exceed 200 kilometers and Rs.
V. Gupte, V. Sivaraman Nair,, C. J. Balakrishnan and A. Sreedhar Nambiar.
V. Gupte and A. Sreedharan Nambiar, for Intervener No.
This 1970 Ordinance was challenged in the Kerala.
Civil Appeal No.
361 of 1973.
K. Viswanatha Iyer, K. Jayram and R. Chandrasekharan.
After hearing the representations and objections of the operators and the public, the final numberification was issued on 13 June, 1963 and was published in the Gazette on 18 June, 1963.
Section 3 of Art 25 of 1963 provided that there shall be levied, and paid to the Government a tax on all passengers, luggage and goods carried by stage carriages and on all goods transported by public carrier vehicles at the rate of 10 nP in the rupee on the fares and freights payable to the operators of such stage carriages and at the rate of 5 nP in the rupee on the freights payable to the operators of such public carrier vehicles.
37.50 per seat per quarter prevalent in the Kerala State was low Compared to.
The Legislature thereafter passed a validating Act in 1961.
Therefore, the total incidence of the two taxes under Motor Vehicles Taxation Act and the Taxation of Passengers and Goods Act was Rs.
The incidence of tax at Rs.
In the Travancore Cochlea area there was only the Travancore Cohin Vehicles Taxation Act 14 of 1950.
361/73 and for Intervener No.
By this numberification, the fare was fixed at 3 nP per kilometre and the minimum fare was fixed at 20 nP. The rate of tax under the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1963 was fixed at Rs.
By that amendment, the rates were increa sed.
Therefore, the tax was unreasonable.
1765 of 1972.
Therefore, the operator was number hit by the proposal for taxation which was taken into Consideration.
T. Harindranath and A. Sreedharan Nambiar, for the appellants, in C. A. No.
In the Malabar ,area the Madras Motor Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Act 1952 was in force over and above the Madras Motor Vehicles Taxation Act.
1 of 1970 was promulgated on 4 January, 1970 introducing amendment s to Act 25 of 1963.
The companytentions in Rai Ramkrishna case supra were two fold.
Since by careful operational economics the expenditure per mile companyld be reduced, by 2 to 3 nP per mile and the earnings increased by rationalisation of services.
No doubt the increased rate of tax, the levy of passenger tax and such other duties would reduce the profit margin and the return on capital out lay to a companysiderable extent.
1875/72 .
Sreedharan Nambiar, for Intervener Nos.
25/ per seat per quarter was levied under the Motor Vehicles Taxation Act and a companypounded rate.
the incidence of vehicle tax in the three neighboring States of Madras, Mysore and Andhra Pradesh.
in Andhra Pradesh, the total companyprising the taxation of passengers and vehicle tax was Rs.
The Act 25 of 1963 companytained these provisions.
In the Malabar area a tax of Rs.
Eventually the operators went before the Kerala High Court.
The fare structure throughout the Kerala State after 1958 was 4 nP per mile and the minimum was 16 nP. In 1961 the Government of Kerala companytinued the fare at 4 nP. per mile but reduced the minimum from 16 nP to 10 nP. In this background, the Government of Kerala on companysideration of proposals made by the Transport Commissioner decided in the month ,of February, 1963 first to increase the motor vehicles tax throughout the, State second, to introduce tax on passengers and goods through out the State and, third to increase the fare structure suitably for stage carriages.
3034 of 1971.
First, retrospective recoveries did number have legislative companypetence.
326/72 .
The existing motor vehicles tax worked at 41.6 nP per day.
1875 of 1972.
Civil Appeal No.
The Madras Vehicles Taxation of Passengers and Goods Act, 1952 became applicable to Andhra Pradesh.
Despite the incidence of higher rate of tax, levy of passenger tax and other duties, I feel that the department companyld still operate its services profitably at the rate of fares companytained in the draft numberification published by the Government.
