Pending challans from before October 2020 cannot block vehicle registration work, Kerala High Court holds

6 November 2026

Justice Murali Purushothaman has read Rule 167(7) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 as a provision that works only forward in time.
That sub-rule entered the Rules through the Central Motor Vehicles (Eleventh Amendment) Rules, 2020, taking effect from October 1, 2020.
A car owner had repaid a Bank of Baroda loan and asked for the hypothecation entry to be cancelled.
The Regional Transport Officer refused, because the vehicle stood blacklisted over challans that had stayed unpaid beyond ninety days.
Those challans related to violations between 2015 and 2019, all of them before the rule existed.
The Court said a substantive provision that creates a new restriction cannot be stretched backwards without clear legislative intent.
The Regional Transport Officer, Ernakulam has been told to process the application without counting challans issued before October 1, 2020.
The judgment is reported as 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 614.