Point of Law: Where the registering authority grants or refuses to grant the no objection certificate, it shall return the duplicate copy of the said Form to the applicant and the triplicate copy to the other registering authority after duly filling and signing Part II thereof.Change in residence.-An application for recording a change in the residence in the certificate of registration of a motor vehicle shall be made by the owner of the vehicle in Form 33 accompanied by the certificate of registration and proof of address in the manner specified in rule 4 and the appropriate fee as specified in rule 81

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Sri B.D. Misra, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Mata Prasad, learned special standing counsel for the State-respondents.

2. This writ petition has been filed praying for the following relief:

"(i) to issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondent no.3 to change the address of petitioner in his Registration Certificate of vehicle No.NL03 B1013 (Bus) and accept the due Road Tax with minimum penalty as per law."

3. Briefly stated facts of the present case are that the motor vehicle of the petitioner was registered by the Government of Nagaland and a certificate of registration dated 22.03.2013 had been issued by the Registering Authority, District Transport Office, Tuensang, Nagaland. Subsequently, the petitioner shifted to District Deoria in the State of U.P. and applied for a No Objection Certificate to the Registering Authority at Tuensang, Nagaland.

4. Upon the aforesaid application, the Registering Authority granted the No Objection Certificate in the prescribed form wherein the Registering Authority upon whom the No Objection Certificate was issued, was shown as “RA Gorakhpur”. On the basis of the aforementioned No Objection Certificate, the petitioner applied for recording a change in the residence in the certificate of registration of the motor vehicle before the Registering Authority at Deoria. The petitioner contends that the application submitted for change in residence accompanied by the No Objection Certificate issued to the Registering Authority at Gorakhpur is not being accepted by the Registering Authority at Deoria and for the said grievance, the present writ petition has been filed.

5. Learned standing counsel submits that No Objection Certificate having been issued to the Registering Authority at Gorakhpur, on the own application made by the petitioner before the Registering Authority at Tuensang, Nagaland, the said certificate is valid for use only before the Registering Authority on whom it is issued i.e. the Registering Authority at Gorakhpur, and for the said reason, unless the petitioner obtains a No Objection Certificate valid for use before the Registering Authority at Deoria, the application for change in residence cannot be accepted by the Registering Authority at Deoria.

6. In order to appreciate rival contentions, the relevant statutory provisions with regard to issuance of a No Objection Certificate under Section 48 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, may be referred to. For ease of reference, Section 48 of the Act, 1988 is being extracted below:

“48. No objection certificate.—

(1) The owner of a motor vehicle when applying for the assignment of a new registration mark under sub-section (1) of section 47, or where the transfer of a motor vehicle is to be effected in a State other than the State of its registration, the transferor of such vehicle when reporting the transfer under sub-section (1) of section 50, shall make an application in such form and in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government to the registering authority by which the vehicle was registered for the issue of a certificate (hereafter in this section referred to as the no objection certificate), to the effect that the registering authority has no objection for assigning a new registration mark to the vehicle or, as the case may be, for entering the particulars of the transfer of ownership in the certificate of registration.

(2) The registering authority shall, on receipt of an application under subsection (1), issue a receipt in such form as may be prescribed by the Central Government.

(3) On receipt of an application under sub-section (1), the registering authority may, after making such inquiry and requiring the applicant to comply with such directions as it deems fit and within thirty days of the receipt thereof, by order in writing, communicate to the applicant that it has granted or refused to grant the no objection certificate: Provided that a registering a