A.K. JAYASANKARAN NAMBIAR, J.

1. In all these writ petitions a common issue arises and hence they are taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common judgment.

2. The issue involved in these writ petitions is with regard to the liability of a person, who purchases a vehicle from another, to discharge the liability of the erstwhile owner under the Kerala Motor Transport Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1985, (hereinafter referred to as 1985 Act, for short), and pertaining to the period when the vehicle was under the ownership and control of the erstwhile owner. The cause of action for the writ petitions arose when the purchasers of the vehicles approached the taxation authorities under the Kerala Motor vehicle Taxation Act for remitting the tax in respect of the vehicles purchased by them. At that stage, the taxation authorities insisted on proof of payment of welfare fund dues under the Kerala Motor Transport Workers Welfare Fund Act 1985, as a precondition for accepting the tax dues in respect of the vehicle. This demand was made by the taxation authorities in terms of Section 4(7) of the Kerala motor Vehicle Taxation Act, 1976, the validity of which has been upheld by a Division Bench of this Court in Siraj vs. Regional Transport Officer, 2007 (3) KLT 929. Section 8 of the 1985 Act, as is stood prior to its amendment through the Amendment Act of 2005, provided for the determination of amounts that were due, inter alia, from an employer under the Act and Section 10 of the Act spelt out the procedure for proceeding against the said employer for recovery of the same. By the amendment Act of 2005, which came into force on 07.06.2005, Section 8 of the Act was substituted with a new provision, and a new Section 8A was inserted in the Act, which read as follows:-

"8A. Production of receipt of remittance of welfare fund contribution - Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, every registered owner or person having possession or control of a motor vehicle in respect of a motor transport undertaking liable to pay contribution (other than autorickshaws covered under the provisions of the Kerala Autorickshaw Workers Welfare Fund Scheme, 1991) shall, at the time of making payment of tax under the Kerala Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1976 (19 of 1976), produce before the Taxation Officer the receipt of remittance of the contribution to the fund due upto the preceding month."

Section 10 was also amended, by substituting a new Section in place of the earlier one, and the amended provision reads as follows:

"10. Mode of recovery of moneys due from the employer, employee and self-employed person –

(1) The amount of arrears for which demand notice has been issued under subsection (1) of Section 8, shall be recovered together with interest thereon at the rate of 9 per cent per annum in the same manner as an arrear of public revenue due on land.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other provisions of this Act or in any other law for the time being in force, where an employer transfers his vehicle before paying any amount due under this Act in respect of the vehicle, the liability wherefore accrued before the date of the transfer, such amount shall be a charge on the vehicle so transferred."

3. The effect of the amendment brought about by the Amendment Act of 2005 was that, from 07.06.2005, the production of receipt of remittance of welfare fund contribution became an essential precondition for making payment of tax in respect of the vehicle, under the Kerala Motor Vehicle Taxation Act, 1976. Further, the arrears of amounts due from employers came to be recognised as a charge on the vehicle, in the event of a transfer by the employer of vehicles that were owned by him, and in respect of which there were amounts due under the 1985 Act. The resultant position was that, in respect of transfer of vehicles, effected by persons who had defaulted on payment of their dues under the 19