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| Transport Deptt seeks re-registration of outside J&K vehicles, issues fresh circular | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 13: A new circular issued by the Transport Department directing owners of vehicles having outside registration to re-register their vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir has left hundreds of people worried.
Though an earlier circular issued by the Regional Transport Officer Srinagar in the month of April on the same subject was quashed by a division Bench of High Court giving a sense of relief but the relief was short lived as another circular on the same subject has been issued by the department, amid lockdown conditions.
The latest circular issued by the Commissioner Secretary of Transport Department directs all the Regional Transport Officers and Assistant Regional Transport Officers to strictly comply with the latest instructions.
According to the new instructions, all the vehicle owners who had purchased vehicles from outside the Union Territory have to re-register their vehicles with the concerned Transport authority, where the vehicle is usually kept and plied.
“No person shall drive any motor vehicle and no owner of a motor vehicle shall cause or permit the vehicle to be driven in any public place or in any other place unless the vehicle is registered in accordance with this Chapter and the certificate of registration of the vehicle has not been suspended or cancelled and the vehicle carries a registration mark displayed in the prescribed manner”, it reads, while the section 40, Registration, where to be made reads, “Subject to the provisions of section 42, section 43 and section 60, every owner of a motor vehicle shall cause the vehicle to be registered by a registering authority in whose jurisdiction he has the residence or place of business where the vehicle is normally kept.
From the language of this new circular, it is almost clear that all the vehicle owners who had purchased vehicles from outside UT of JK, would have to re-register their vehicles. “I had purchased a motorcycle from Gurdaspur Punjab and the Registration Certificate bears my name but registration number is still of Punjab. Now as per new circular I would have to visit Gurdaspur to get NOC and re-register the motorcycle after paying token/road tax in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Surinder Sharma of Samba.
Another person from Gandhi Nagar said that many traders of Jammu had purchased luxury cars from Chandigarh as in Jammu there was no showroom of Mercedes and other companies. “Now we have to re-register our vehicles and have to pay token tax again on these vehicles, which is totally unjustifiable”, another car owner said, adding that the token tax would run in several lakhs.
Earlier it was believed that the earlier circular on the same subject was quashed by the High Court but the department has reissued the same circular. “It is very difficult to complete the formalities to get the old vehicles re-registered as it involves lot of formalities, such as furnishing of sale-letter, Form Number 22, 23, NOC from the concerned Registering authority where the vehicle was first purchased beside others”, another vehicle owner said, adding that if the same circular was quashed, why same was reissued by department.
A Regional Transport Officer pleading anonymity said that the re-registration of vehicles in the same State or Union Territory is as per provisions of Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989. “The High Court had not quashed the circular issued by the Transport Department but a particular circular issued by RTO Srinagar, which was challenged in the High Court”, the official said, adding that the re-registration of vehicles was as per central laws and all owners would have to re-register their vehicles otherwise penalties could be imposed on them.
Asked if the luxury cars, whose showrooms are not available in Jammu, have to be re-registered, the official responded in affirmative and said that as per laws of the land, it is mandatory and they would also have to re-register their vehicles. |
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