' MAMOON KAZI, J.----In 1990 the Government of Sindh the respondent No,1 herein launched a scheme for issuance of new registration number plates for commercial and non-commercial vehicles with effect from 2-4-1990. A Press release was issued in this regard which was published in all the leading newspapers in Pakistan. The scheme was also publicised through T.V. and Radio for the information of public. Under this scheme every owner of a commercial and a non-commercial motor vehicle was obliged to get a new registration number plate for such vehicle on payment of a prescribed fee.
2. The petitioner who is an advocate by profession owns a non commercial motor vehicle which was registered with the Director Excise and Taxation (Vehicle Tax), the respondent No,2 in this petition. Obviously the petitioner was obliged under the said Press release to obtain a new registration plate for his motor vehicle.
3. The only provision of law to which the learned Additional Advocate-General has referred is section 25 of the Sindh Motor Vehicles Ordinance which after its amendment by Sindh Finance Act VII of 1977 provides as follows:-- "25. Registration how to be made.---(1) An application by or on behalf of the owner of a motor vehicle for registration shall be in Form F as set forth in the First Sehedule, shall contain the information required by that form and shall be accompanied by the prescribed fee.
(2) The registering authority shall issue to the owner of a motor vehicle registered by it a certificate of registration in Form G as set forth in the First Schedule and shall enter in a record to be kept by it particulars of such certificate.
(3) The registering authority shall assign to the vehicle for display thereon in the prescribed manner a distinguishing mark (in this Ordinance referred to as the registration mark) consisting of the group of letters allotted to the District concerned by the Sixth Schedule followed by a number containing not more than four figures or such number and a letter: ' Provided that any motor vehicle whether the property of Government or not declared by the Federal Government to be meant for the use of the President or by the Provincial Government to be meant for the use of the Governor of West Pakistan, shall not be assigned a registration mark and shall instead display such other mark as may be specified by the Federal or the Provincial Government as the case may be.
Sindh Amendment:
(4) Government may by notification direct that the registration under this section of any particular class or classes of motor vehicles shall be valid for such fixed period not less than one year as Government may specify in the notification.
(5) Where a notification is issued under subsection (4), the motor Vehicles specified in the notification shall in addition to the certificate of registration and the registration mark be issued plates to be called registration plates for display thereon.
(6) The registration plates shall be issued on payment of such fee and be of such material, colour, dimensions and carry such writing (including registration marks) as may be prescribed."
4. The petitioner after filing the present petition requested for stay against the impugned action but being unsuccessful in immediately obtaining an interim relief from this Court he was obliged to obtain a new registration plate in accordance with the said scheme.
5. The contention of the petitioner, however, is that the respondent No,1 had no lawful authority either to issue the said circular or compel the petitioner to obtain a new registration plate for his motor vehicle. Admittedly as has been pointed out earlier the action was taken by the respondent No,1 under the provisions of section 25 of the Sindh Motor Vehicles Ordinance which has already been reproduced above. As is evident from subsection (4) the Government has been empowered by a notification to fix the period of validity of registration of a motor vehicle which shall not be less than ,one year. However the Government has been empowered to specify the period of validity of such registration by a notification. When the notification as just pointed out is issued under subsection (4) only in such a case the motor vehicles specified in the notification shall in addition to the certificate of registration and the registration mark be obliged to obtain new registration plates for display on the motor vehicles. As is required by subsection (6) of section 25 such registration plates shall be issued on payment of such fee and be of such a material colour and dimensions and carry such writing (including registration mark) as may be prescribed under the rules. The learned Additional Advocate-General has invited our attention to rule 32(8) which prescribes the rates which may be charged for such registration plates by different classes of vehicles and the dimensions of such plates.
6. It is clearly evident from the above provisions of the Sindh Motor Vehicles Ordinance that what the Government has been empowered under section 25 of the said Ordinance is to issue a notification fixing the period of validity of registration of any class or classes of motor vehicles and if any such notification has been issued the Government has been further empowered to issue number plates to be called registration plates for display on such motor vehicles in addition to the certificate of registration and the registration mark. Such registration plates can be issued on payment of such fee etc. as has been prescribed by the rules. In the present case the Government did issue a Notification No,SO(T-II)3(19)/77 dated 4-1-1978, fixing the period of validity of all classes of motor vehicles except motor-cycles and rikshaws to be three years. As is further evident from the said notification a copy of which has just been placed before us by the learned Additional Advocate-General the said notification was issued in the purported exercise of powers conferred upon the Government by subsection (4) of section 25 of the Sindh Motor Vehicles Ordinance. Since notification referred to under subsection (4) of section 25 was issued by the respondent No,1 in 1978, it could no doubt initiate further action as envisaged by subsections ,(5) and (6) of the said section after the expiry of the period of three years referred to in the said notification. However it has been candidly admitted by the learned Additional Advocate-General that thereafter owners of the motor vehicles specified in the said notification were not required to obtain new certificates of registration as referred to in subsection (5) of section 25 nevertheless the respondent No,1 launched the said scheme of issuing new registration plates to the owners of different classes of commercial and non-commercial vehicles. The learned Additional Advocate-General has not been able to refer to any provision of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance whereunder such a scheme could be launched without requiring the owners of the motor vehicles to obtain new certificates of registration as contemplated by subsection (5) of section 25. The only provision of law to which the learned Additional Advocate-General has referred is rule 32 of Motor Vehicles Rules, sub-rule (8) whereof prescribes different rates and dimensions for registration plates for different classes of commercial and non-commercial vehicles but the said rule nowhere empowers the Government to require the owners of such vehicles to obtain new registration plates without issuance of certificate of registration as referred to in subsection (5) of section 25. A plain reading of subsection (5) dearly indicates that issuance of new registration plates is linked with issuance of certificate of registration. In other words if the owners of motor vehicles have not been required to obtain new registration for the vehicles they cannot be required to obtain new registration plates for the same. Consequently as has been pointed out above the action of the respondent No,1 requiring the owners to obtain new registration number plates does not seem to be warranted by section 25 of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance.
7. Mr. Rashid Akhtar Qureshi has called our attention to the case of Mrs. Zarina Gauhar v. Province of Sindh and 3 others PLD 1976 Kar. 1257 where Tufail Ali A. Rahman, C.J. while speaking for the Division Bench of this Court has observed as follows:--- " However, it would not be necessary for any Article in this Chapter so to state inasmuch as Article 3 which in a sense is more firmly embedded than the Fundamental Rights themselves, in that it cannot even be suspended declares it to be the inalienable right of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan to enjoy the protection of the law and to be treated in accordance with law and only in accordance with law. It would follow that executive action would necessarily have to be such that it could not possibly violate a Fundamental Right. The only power of the executive to take action would have to be deprived from law and the law itself would not be able to confer upon the executive any power to deal with a citizen or other person in Pakistan in contravention of a Fundamental Right................................................................................................ "
' Similar observations can be found in Muhammad Aslam Baloch v. Member, Board of Revenue (Colonies), Punjab and 2 others 1988 CLC 356.
8. We have therefore no doubt in our minds that the action requiring the owners of Motor Vehicles to obtain new registration number plates to be displayed on their motor vehicles is not warranted by the provisions of section 25 of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance or rule 32(8) of the Motor Vehicles Rules reference to which has been made by the learned Additional Advocate-General. As no other provision of law has been referred to by the learned Additional Advocate-General under which the action was purportedly taken the entire action appears to have been taken without lawful authority.
9. In the result we allow this petition and declare that the impugned circular is without lawful authority. However, since the petitioner has already been compelled to obtain a new registration plate for his motor vehicle against the payment of Rs,50 the respondents would be liable to refund the said amount to the petitioner on return of the said number plate. The parties are left to bear their own costs.