- (1.) We have heard Sri S.N. Jaiswal for the petitioner. Learned standing counsel appears for the State respondents. No one appears for Nagar Panchayat, Kithore, Meerut. Sri Devendra Kumar has filed counter affidavit on behalf of respondent Nos. 2 and 3.
(2.) The petitioners are mini bus owners, and they are operating their vehicles on the city route namely Ganohi Ashram (Meerut) to Kithore via Medical College, under the permits obtained by them from the Regional Transport Authority, Meerut. By this writ petition, the petitioners have prayed for a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents not to realize parking fee from them.
(3.) In the counter affidavit of Sri Sushil Kumar, as Executive Officer, Nagar Panchayat, Kithore, District Meerut, it is stated that the Nagar Panchayat, Kithore, District Meerut invited objections, and has made by laws, which has been approved by the State Government on 26.11.2001, authorizing all the Nagar Nigam/Nagar Palika Parishad//Nagar Panchayat, to charge parking fee from the vehicles, which enter into the limits of local bodies and thereafter use the stand, or parking places, to pick-up and drop the passengers within the said Nagar Nigam or Nagar Panchayat. The relevant bye-laws provide that the parking fees shall be realized by the local body only for parking the vehicle at a place, which has been identified by the local body, and that where the facility of parking is provided; the local body will notify the name of the contractor, period of contract and parking rate on the notice board fixed, and where the parking facility is not provided, parking fee shall not be charged.;