Delhi HC adjourns hearing on plea challenging re-registration of motor vehicles rules

The Delhi High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on a public suit seeking framing of policy regarding uniform road tax for the private vehicles across the country.

The court said that it will hear the plea challenging the rules regarding the re-registration of motor vehicles in India on February 26.

The court was hearing the petition seeking direction to Central government to keep a "unified online database" for vehicles registered all over India so that if a vehicle registered at the Regional Transport Office of one state gets registered in another, the life-time road tax paid in the previous state is automatically paid by the previous state to the new state.

The plea was filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Deepak Bajpai and retired bureaucrat Narendra B Singh.

The plea draws the attention on the "bizarre rules" regarding the re-registration of motor vehicles upon transfer to another state and the "sheer inconvenience" faced by the vehicle owners in getting a refund of the hefty one-time road tax paid by them in one state upon transfer of the vehicle to another state.

"The procedure of seeking a refund of one-time road tax already paid in the previous state is very cumbersome and crude in India which makes it practically impossible for a vehicle owner to get the refund and he ends up paying double taxes," the plea stated.

It added, "For seeking refund of One time Road tax from the previous state, a vehicle owner has to first pay One time Road Tax in new state, and then he has to come back to the authorities in the previous state and apply for the refund by annexing documents/proof of payment in new state and then pursue the matter."

The petitioner submitted that the Central Government has not devised an online mechanism of payment and refund of one-time road tax also and this complicates the things further.

"Most of the times it involves multiple visits and it is practically impossible and financially draining for a vehicle owner to visit the previous state. Resultantly the onetime tax paid in the previous state never gets refunded to him and this is double taxation which is even otherwise unconstitutional and unjustified as no person should be taxed twice for the same liability," the petitioner said adding that the country follows Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with several countries.

The purpose of DTAA is to ensure that people are not taxed multiple times for the same tax liability.