ORDER

In SLP (C) Nos. 8280/79, 7276-78/79 and 4607/86

1. Special leave granted in these petitions.

2. The Registry to assign numbers to these appeals.

3. These appeals as well as Civil Appeal Nos. 739-40 of 1979, 285 of 1979, 777-83 of 1979 and 1274-75 of 1986 form a bunch and can conveniently be disposed of by a common order.

4. The common facts in each of these appeals are that the respondents in each case owned a vehicle fit either for passenger transport or goods transport. The respondents vehicles carry Certificates of Registration depending on the kind of vehicle. The respective Certificates of Registration were deposited by the respondents before the Regional Transport Taxing Officer claiming exemption from tax payable under Section 3 of the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Taxation Act). The certificates of fitness related to those Certificates of Registration were non-existent, either by efflux of time or otherwise. On the factum of certificates of fitness being non-existent the respondents claimed that the Certificates of Registration had lost currency and, therefore, the Explanation to Section 3(1) of the Taxation Act ceased to apply leaving it open to the Regional Transport Officer to devise other methods to fix liability on the respondents for payment of tax under the Taxation Act if it was established that the vehicles were suitable for use on roads during the relevant period. The prayer of the respondents was rejected. The Explanation to Section 3(1) of the Taxation Act was employed to bring the respondents within the Taxation Act. That Explanation reads as follows:

"A motor vehicle of which the certificate of registration is current shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be a vehicle suitable for use on roads."

5. The respective appeals of the respondents before the appellate authority were dismissed which led to writ petitions at their instance being filed in the High Court of Karnataka. Two of such petitions being subject matters of Civil Appeal Nos. 739-40 of 1979 were referred to a Full Bench for decision since there appeared to be a conflict of authority in that court. The Full Bench taking note of the relevant provisions of the Taxation Act and the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, as also the interpretations and inter-relationships deduced in various decisions of that Court finally overruled V. Naraina Reddy v. Commissioner for Transport in Mysore{(1971) 2 Mysore LJ 319} approving State of Karnataka v. Boodi Reddappa{(1975) 1 Kant LJ 206}. The Full Bench observed as follows:

"The fiction embodied in the Explanation to Section 3( 1) of the Taxation Act comes into play only when a certificate of registration is obtained under Chapter II of the Motor Vehicles Act and continues to operate as long as the said certificate is current. The said certificate ceases to be current only by operation of the relevant provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. It is not in any way affected by any of the provisions of the Taxation Act. Hence in order to find out whether a certificate of registration is current or not, we have to look to the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act only. It follows that there cannot be a certificate of registration which is not current for purposes of the Motor Vehicles Act, but current for purposes of the Taxation Act. Under the Motor Vehicles Act a certificate of registration may cease to be current in several ways. It comes to an end on the expiry of the prescribed period under Section 25 of the Motor Vehicles Act. It ceases to be current by an order of suspension passed under Section 33 of the Motor Vehicles Act or by an order of cancellation under Section 34 of the Motor Vehicles Act. In the case of a transport vehicle, when it does not carry a fitness certificate, Section 38(1) states that it shall not be deemed to have been validly registered for purposes of Section 22 of the Motor Vehicles Act. That means that during the period when the transport vehic