Kerala High Court: A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, J. disposed of the writ petition after hearing the parties. As the motor vehicle of the petitioner is registered prior to the 1-10-2017, he contends that he is only liable to pay motor vehicle tax on the basis of seating capacity.
The petitioner here have a motor vehicle, registered under the registration number- KL-13-AH-1836. The counsel for the petitioner, I. Dinesh Menon, contended that tax should only be charged in respect of the stage carriage vehicle on a seating capacity basis and not on the basis of floor area.
It was held in the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court, W.A. No. 220 of 2018, that the vehicles that are registered before 01-10-2017, shall only be charged on the basis of seating capacity and not on the basis of the floor area.
After taking the submissions, the Court dismissed this case. The Court directed the respondent to levy taxes on the petitioner, in respect of stage carriage vehicle only on the seating capacity and not as per the floor area of the vehicle. Any exceeds proceeds that have already been collected, shall be adjusted towards the future liability. [Mullappalli Chandran v. State of Kerala, 2019 SCC OnLine Ker 5345, decided on 11-12-2019]
