JUDGMENT

D.S. Mathur, J. - This is a Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution by Mahabir Prasad Jain and 79 others, members of the Meerut Bulandshahr Association, Meerut, and running their stage carriages (buses) on the Bulandshahr and Meerut route, to challenge the imposition of toll on their vehicles by the Town Area Committee of Kharkhauda. Toll tax rules are contained in annexure `A' to the writ petition.

2. It shall be proper to interpret these rules before commenting on the facts as pleaded in the petition. The material rules are 1 and 10. Rule 1 provides that no person shall bring within the limits of the Town Area laden vehicles or conveyances, nor a head-load or Bahangi load or laden pack animal, unless in respect thereof toll leviable under Schedule A to the rules has been paid. Lorry or bus is a motor vehicle meant to carry passengers along with their personal luggage. A vehicle carrying passengers may be said to be a loaded vehicle but in the context of the toll tax rules, the carrying of passengers shall not be the determining factor. Head load is carried by a human being on his head. Toll tax is payable only if a load is carried on the head and not if the person enters the Town Area limits without any load. The same can be said of a Bahangi load or laden pack-animal. The word "laden" must, therefore, be given a restricted meaning, namely, that it has reference to the goods carried in the vehicle and not the passengers travelling therein. Such an inference can be drawn from schedule A also. In other words, therefore, toll tax shall be leviable on motor vehicles or lorry (bus) carrying the personal luggage of passengers provided that the goods are not exempted from toll tax and the weight of the goods exceeds the minimum weight prescribed in schedule A. The exemption clauses are contained in Schedules A and B and also in Rule 10. In the case of loads on a vehicle or any other laden conveyance, no toll tax is leviable if the weight thereof does not exceed 40 Kgs. It is the weight of the load, that is, the luggage carried on or in the vehicles, and not the weight of the passengers, which shall determine whether toll tax is or is not leviable. Articles detailed in Schedule 'B' are exempted from toll tax. Consequently, on reading Schedules A and B together it must be held that in determining the weight of the goods leviable with toll tax and carried in or on the vehicle, one must deduct from the total weight the weight of the articles exempted under Schedule B and if after such deduction the weight of the goods does not exceed 40 Kgs., no toll tax shall be leviable but if the weight exceeds 40 Kgs., toll tax shall be chargeable as detailed in Schedule A.

3. As laid down in Rule 10 no toll tax shall be chargeable where the laden vehicle merely passes in transit through the limits of the Town Area and does not stay there for more than four hours. In such cases a transit pass fee shall be chargeable. A vehicle passing in transit through the Town Area limits, is not expected to draw passengers or to pick up goods. Transit' ordinarily signifies the departure or export of goods in the condition they had entered or were imported within the Town Area limits. Toll tax is not payable on passengers and, therefore, in determining whether the vehicle had merely passed in transit, one shall have to consider the goods carried on or in the vehicle, not the passengers carried therein. A motor vehicle in transit shall, therefore, be one which does not unload or load goods within the Town Area limits. If a vehicle not unloading or loading goods within the Town Area limits does not stay within such limits for more than four hours, no toll tax shall be payable and only a transit pass fee shall be chargeable.

4. There is nothing on record to show that the motor vehicles of the petitioners did not carry unexempted goods of a weight exceeding 40 Kgs., nor is there any assertion that the petitioners did not load or unload personal luggage