- (1.) The short question which arises for determination in this civil appeal, by special leave, is whether the taxation authority under the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1957 was right in taxing the "tractor-trailer as a separate and distinct vehicle, different from a tractor and denying exemption sought by the appellant under Sec. 16 of the said 1957 Act, on the ground that the tractor-trailer was a distinct category of "goods carriage" requiring permit under Sec. 66 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
(2.) The brief facts which are relevant to be noticed are as under : The appellant are transporters of heavy equipments using mechanised carriage depending upon the items to be transported. During the period 8-12-1989 to 31-3-1990, they were engaged by the Central Power Research Institute of India (C.P.R.I.) to transport for them six units of transformers from Madras Port to its site at Bangalore. The goods were to be lifted from Madras Port and transported to C.P.R.I. at Bangalore by vehicular transport mode through the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. In the matter of transportation of over-dimensional cargo, the appellant made use of a drawing vehicle, called by the appellant as a tractor to push/pull the trailers loaded with the above-mentioned equipments.
(3.) Between 8-12-1989 and 11-1-1990, three units of the tractor-trailer carrying transformers entered the State of Karnataka via Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.;