V.K.SINGHAL, J. - (1.) THIS order will dispose of all the above numbered writ petitions as identical question of law is involved in each of them.
(2.) LEARNED Counsel for the petitioner has raised a point before me that the imposition of penalty under Section 6(2) of the Rajasthan Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1951 is not justified, it is submitted that the petitioner is Gujarat State undertaking and was submitting the returns as required under the Act timely. It is also submitted that the tak amount in accordance with the return was paid. The return which was submitted was having a note in respect of those days where the vehicle was not plied and the reasons were also given thereof Under Rule 25 (b) of the Rules Mr. A.k. Bhandari, learned Addl. Advocate General has submitted that in the present case though the returns were filed and the tax in accordance with returns was also deposited, but it was incomplete because the full special road tax which was required to be deposited under Section 4(b) was not deposited. In the return it was submitted by the petitioner that he was required to deposit the full and correct amount of tax due and payable. In accordance with the provisions of Rajasthan Motor Vehicles Taxation Rules, 1951, it has been provided that the tax under Section 4 of the Act in respect of the vehicles and under Section 4(b) of the Act in respect of vehicles other than those stage carriages which are plying exclusively within Municipal limits or city limit shall be payable in advance to the Taxation Officer by the owner of the any person having possession or control of motor vehicle, of the manufacturer of or dealer of motor vehicles. It is submitted that the period of making the payment of tax has already been provided and explanation has been given Under Rule 25 -B where the vehicle owner has to satisfy the Taxation Officer that the Vehicle was not used in the State under any of the circumstances mentioned in the rule. One of such circumstance was that the certificate of registration was suspended by the competent authority and the others are that the motor vehicle was restrained from plying by the competent court or authority, or the motor vehicle was involved in an accident and a report to this effect was made to the police and that because of accident it remained out of use atleast for a period of 3 months, or the Motor vehicle was attarched for the recovery of tax under the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act by the competent authority or attached under the warrant of attachment issued by the competent authority, or court and that during the period of attachment the vehicle did not remain in his possession, or the vehicle has been taken out of the State and Certificate has been produced that the vehicle has paid tax in another state, or any other reason or reasons, due to which it was impossible for the owner to ply the vehicle. It is submitted that the obligation on the part of the petitioner was to surrender the permit and to comply with the requirement of Rule 4(d) and (e). It is submitted that since the compliance of Rule 4(d) and (e) was not made, the additional demand of tax has been created and for that reason the penalty was imposed.
(3.) I have considered over the matter. The provisions of Section 6 have been enacted for levy of penalty and it is provided under Clause (f) were the tax in respect of a motor vehicles is not paid within the period allowed, the defaulter shall be liable to pay in addition to the tax a penalty.' The quantum of penalty has been prescribed as Rs. 2/ -if the tax is paid during the first week after the expiry of the period allowed, and if the tax is paid after the expiry of the said first week, the amount of penalty to be recovered for each month or part of the month from the date of expiry of the period allowed shall be one and half percent of the amount of tax due provided that the penalty shall in no case be less than Rs. 2/ - and more than double the tax due.;