N.D.OJHA, J. - (1.)These eight writ petitions raise a common question and are as such, being decided by a common order.
(2.)The petitioners in these writ petitions are operators of stage carriages and have to pay passenger tax as contemplated by the U.P. Motor Gadi Yatrikar Adhiniyam, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). By these writ petitions orders assessing the petitioners to tax under the said Act for the period between Jan. 1979 and 29th July, 1979 passed by the Passenger Tax Officer (Yatri Kar Adhikari) Kanpur, are sought to be quashed. The case of the petitioners which has not been disputed is that they had entered into an agreement as contemplated by the first proviso to S.5 of the Act for payment of tax under the said Act on the lump sum basis. By the impugned orders the petitioners have been required to pay additional tax on the ground that even though under the agreement they were entitled to make only two trips, they had made more trips and consequently were liable to pay additional tax calculated on the basis of the additional trips made by them.
(3.)It has been urged by counsel for the petitioners that under the Act the petitioners could be required to pay either that amount of tax which they were liable to pay under the lump sum agreement or such amount of tax as was calculated on the basis of the number of passengers actually carried by them during the period in question and that the Passenger Tax Officer had no jurisdiction to require the petitioners to pay additional tax calculated only on the basis of additional trips said to have been made by the petitioners in excess of the trips permitted under the lump sum agreement.