WP(C) No. 4073 of 2004. Case: Co-ordination Committee of Bus Owners of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia Districts Vs State of Assam and Ors.. Guwahati High Court
| Case Number | WP(C) No. 4073 of 2004 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: D.P. Chaliha, Adv. and For Respondents: A. Buragohain, Addl. Adv. General and B. Malakar, Adv. |
| Judges | I.A. Ansari, J. |
| Issue | Assam Municipal Act, 1956 - Sections 68, 68(1); Constitution of India - Article 226 |
| Citation | 2006 (3) GLR 183 |
| Judgement Date | May 08, 2006 |
| Court | Guwahati High Court |
Judgment:
I.A. Ansari, J.
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When put in a narrow compass, the case of the writ petitioner emerges, thus: The writ petitioner is a Co-ordination Committee formed by the owners of buses of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia. The members of the said Committee ply their buses as permit holders of stage carriage. The said Co-ordination Committee (hereinafter referred to as 'the petitioner-Committee') has authorized the convenor of the said Committee to take up the cause of the bus owners before various authorities. The buses of the members of the petitioner-Committee ply not only within the districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, but also cover the districts of Jorhat and Golaghat. While plying their buses, the members of the petitioner-Is Committee are required to take their buses, through the State highways, to places like Namrup, Jaypur, Naharkatia and Duliajan and they are also required to stop their vehicles en-route, at different places, to enable the passengers to alight from their vehicles and to pick up new passengers into their vehicles. By the side of the highway, at Naharkatia, there is a strip of land measuring about 40 feet in length and 15 feet in breadth. There is no structure or any other facilities like water, sitting accommodation for passengers, waiting room, ticket-counter and/or lights for convenience of the passengers. Without having provided such infrastructure or facilities as indicated hereinbefore, the Naharkatia Town Committee (in short, 'the respondent Town Committee') has started collecting parking fees from the vehicles, which belong to the members of the petitioner-Committee. On making enquiry, the petitioner-Committee has come to learn that the respondent-Town Committee has appointed a lessee to collect parking fees from the users of the said land, which the members of the petitioner-Committee had already been using for a long time for the purpose of parking their vehicles: Having not provided any infrastructure or any facilities for the purpose of making use of the said plot of land as a public bus stand, the respondent-Town Committee is not entitled to collect any parking fees. This apart, under Section 68 of the Assam Municipal Act, 1956, the respondent-Town Committee cannot impose any parking fee without prior sanction from the Government. However, since no sanction, in this regard, has been obtained from the Government by the respondent-Town Committee in terms of Clause (n) of Sub-section (1) of Section 68, the...
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