9911796707
TMI Blog1971 (11) TMI 145X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... adesh Motor Vehicles Taxation Act (V of 1963). The appellant in the first two appeals is the Automotive Manufacturers (P.) Ltd., a dealer, among other automobile equipment, of motor chassis, motor vehicles etc. received by it from manufacturers outside the State of Andhra Pradesh. The first appeal arises out of a writ petition against the levy in respect of motor chassis delivered to it by Ashok Leyland Ltd. of Madras. These chassis are said to be driven by transport contractors of the manufacturers themselves under temporary, certificates of registration under the Motor Vehicles Act and delivered to the appellant at Secunderabad. The second appeal by the same appellant arises out of a writ petition challenging the levy on jeeps, jeep truck ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d user or kept for use by the customers for whom the vehicles are transported in the manner contemplated by the Motor Vehicles Act. 2. S. 9 of the Act exempts from payment of tax chassis of a motor vehicle "driven to another place in order that a body may be attached to it". As the chassis are invariably driven to their respective destinations in order that bodies may be attached to them, they come directly under the notification of exemption issued by the State Government. As the chassis or the vehicles are covered by temporary certificates of registration taken out by the manufacturers entitling transportation throughout the territory of India, the impugned levy operates as an impediment to the free trade and commerce of the petitione ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it and so long as the said step was not taken, the question of levy of tax under the Act would not arise. We were referred to the different meanings of the word "use" in the Oxford Dictionary some of which are as follows :- "To make use of as a means or instrument; To employ for a profitable end;" In our view, it is not necessary for a chassis to have a body attached to it before it can be used within the meaning of the Act inasmuch as it can be used by the man who drives it and such use of it on public roads would be enough to attract the levy. Ordinary chassis have bodies attached to them for commercially profitable use but even without a body a chassis can be used and is actually used when it is taken over public roads. The second ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the tax to the journey of the chassis for the express purpose of a body being attached to it. The Automotive Manufacturers being dealers can and do probably deal with or dispose of the chassis as such. There is no allegation in any of the two writ petitions tiled by these appellants that the chassis were coming from Madras or Bombay for the purpose of having bodies attached to them at the workshop of the appellant. In so far as Ashok Leyland Ltd. Is concerned, it is their positive case that the chassis were being driven through the State of Andhra Pradesh either for delivery there or in other States of India. They were certainly being driven along the roads of Andhra Pradesh for disposal at the joumey s end and it would be for the purchase ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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