- (1.) The above writ petition has been filed by the petitioner for the following reliefs: (a) A writ in the nature of the mandamus commanding the respondents concerned, (i) To consider the Annexure "P-1" collectively containing the grievances of the petitioner being an ex-military person for not providing any facilities, amenities and services as per Government rules; (ii) Not to encourage the respondent authorities to extort money from the petitioner; (hi) To consider this instant application on top priority because of rehabilitation venture has been damaged by the respondents; (iv) Prayed for setting aside all the earlier illegal judgements and consider Annexure "P-l" collectively for issue of appropriate orders; (v) To follow the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Part-B and Part-C of Schedule- 1 of section 3 of West Bengal Additional Tax and One-time Tax on Motor Vehicles Act, 1989 and amendment Act, 1992, 2004 and thereto; (vi) Stoppage of registration of omnibuses "Contract Carriage", "Public Service Vehicles" and "Idle Bus" without covering any substantive route permit or All Bengal Contract Carriage route permit in accordance with 127(b) of Govermnent gazette/ notification dated 20th February, 2003; (vii) To stop of issue special permits upon such owner of the vehicles those who are registered in West Bengal and plying in West Bengal and not covered by any substantive route permit; (viii) To stop of realization of double road tax and double additional tax by the respondents; (ix) To refund all the regular road tax and all the regular additional tax with 500% penalty which were illegally realized from the petitioner since the day of registration on 20th February, 1990 to 30th April, 1996; (x) To release the omnibus of the petitioner bearing No. WB- 23/0398 with all the accessories in the same condition that was illegally seized on 18th June, 1997 along with issue of permanent route permits from Kolkata to Siliguri; (xi) Prayed for urgently interim relief to the petitioner as he is starving with his family members; (xii) Prayed for returning last 15 years of golden age of the petitioner and his family members along with entire damages; (xiii) Prayed for urgently payment of compensation of Rs. 5 crore to the petitioner and if the respondent authorities will refund by voluntarily calling all such owner of the vehicles like petitioner and will take necessary action against the concerned Taxing Officers of Motor Vehicles Department of Government of West Bengal for all sorts of illegal activities and if otherwise not refunding to all the operators of such vehicles then may kindly be directed to the respondent to pay compensation of Rs. 500 crore from the fund of extortion money to the petitioner; (xiv) Prayed for issue of necessary directions upon the Deputy General Manager of West Bengal Financial Corporation to provide compensation immediately, financial assistance as compensation for livelihood of the petitioner and his family members. (b) Prayed for granting priority to the ex-servicemen regarding their resettlement as they are sacrificing by their golden youths to protect our sovereignty also by sacrificing financially as they are getting 8 hours of basic pay whereas engaged in the defence services round the clock being combatant soldiers without any overtime benefits; (c) Prayed for payment of arrears of overtime which may kindly be given to all the ex-servicemen those who have been deprived from their rehabilitation by the State of West Bengal; (d) A writ in the nature of the certiorari calling upon the respondents concerned to produce all the records in connection with the subject-matter of the writ petition before the Hon'ble Court for appropriate order or orders could pass thereupon.
(2.) After going through the body of the petition for several hours I could gather the relevant fact to which a Law Court can pay attention. Such summarized fact ignoring the allegations made against the learned Judges of this Court is as follows: The petitioner is an ex-serviceman of Indian Air Force after completing his regular engagement on and from 31" August, 1988. He tried his best to get the Government service after completing his service. However, on failure of getting any service he opted for financial loan for re-employment under the scheme commonly known as self-employment for ex-servicemen formulated by Ministry ofDefence, Government of India. In the said scheme the project of the petitioner for obtaining financial loan for carrying on transport business was duly approved. So he obtained loan of a sum of Rs. 5 lakhs sanctioned and released by West Bengal Financial Corporation and purchased a motor vehicle which was registered as WB- 23/0398 on 20th February, 1990 by registering authority. The grievance of the petitioner is that no fixed route permit was issued on one hand and on the other hand all the taxes including additional road taxes were realised from the petitioner though he could not ply the vehicle gainfully in any particular route. He had chosen for plying his vehicle in the inter-State route from Calcutta to Puri. The petitioner had to pay all these illegal taxes owing to ignorance of the position of the law. The petitioner's vehicle was illegally seized by the Transport Department while the same was on the road and it is kept at Contai Police Station.
(3.) The petitioner filed a writ petition in this Court challenging the action of the State Transport Department for realizing the tax in connection with the said vehicle. The said writ petition being C.O. No. 16487(W) of 1996 was dismissed by the Hon'ble Mr. Justice Samaresh Banerjea as His Lordship then was. Thereafter, an appeal was preferred against the said judgment and order. However, the same was also dismissed by the Division Bench. A review application was made against the said Division Bench judgment and order. However, the said review application was proved to be unsuccessful. Then another writ petition was filed being W.P. No. 7177(W) of 2003 making the same grievance contained in the earlier writ petition. However, the same was also dismissed. Before that the petitioner filed second writ petition being W.P. No. 3190(W) of 2002 which was also dismissed.;