Judgment :- This Writ Petition is filed for a Mandamus to set aside Memo No.417/A3/2012, dated 29-06-2012, issued by respondent No.1 and to issue a consequential direction to respondent No.1 to release the petitioner’s vehicle bearing registration No. AP/01X – 6694 seized under Vehicle Check Report No.0807284, dated 22-06-2012. I have heard Mr.B. Siva Rama Krishnaiah, learned Counsel for the petitioner, and the learned Assistant Government Pleader for Transport appearing for the respondents. The petitioner holds a State Wide Contract Carriage Permit. On 22-06-2012, his vehicle referred to above was seized by respondent No.2 under a check report wherein the following allegations were made: “Stopped and checked the above mentioned vehicle while proceeding from Hyderabad to Adilabad with 35 + 1 passengers and found the following irregularities. On the enquiry of the passengers, the passengers are not belongs to unique community. They are belongs to different families and there is no single contract between driver/owner with the passengers, they were all are individually paid passengers, travelling from different places to different destinations.” The petitioner has filed an application under Rule 448-B of the A.P. Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 (for short ‘the Rules’) before respondent No.1 on 24-06-2012. Respondent No.1 has passed an order rejecting the petitioner’s application. Feeling aggrieved by the same, the petitioner filed the present Writ Petition. A perusal of the impugned order shows that a charge sheet was filed against the owner and driver of the seized vehicle for prosecution in the Court of the learned Judicial First Class Magistrate, Adilabad District, on 26-06-2012; that the same is pending before the said Court and that, therefore, the petitioner’s application was rejected. Respondent No.1 seems to have proceeded on the premise that once the Criminal Case is registered, he need not release the vehicle. Under Section 207(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short ‘the Act’), the Motor Vehicle is liable for being seized and detained, if the Officer competent to seize has the reason to believe that the vehicle has been or is being used in contravention of the provisions of Section 3 or Section 4 or Section 39 of the Act or without the permit required under sub-Section 1 of Section 66 or in contravention of any condition of such permit relating to the route on which or the area in which or the purpose for which the vehicle may be used. Under sub-Section (2) thereof, on the application filed by the owner or the person incharge of the Motor Vehicle, the competent authority may release the Vehicle after verification of such documents subject to the conditions as the authority or the Officer may deem fit to impose. Clause (iv) of Rule 448-A of the Rules inter alia provides that where prosecution of the owner of driver or both is necessary, charge sheets against them shall be filed before the concerned Magistrate within three days from the date of seizure and the Motor Vehicle shall be released by the Officer, who detained it, after the prosecution is completed under intimation to Secretaries of Regional Transport Authorities mentioned in Clause (ii) thereof. Under Rule 448-B of the Rules, application for release of a vehicle seized and detained under sub-section (1) of Section 207 of the Act shall be made in the prescribed form and the Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, of the Region shall entertain the application for release of vehicles seized and detained by subordinate officers. On a conjoint reading of these provisions, it is evident that while a motor vehicle is liable for being seized and detained in contravention of the provisions of the Act as enumerated in Section 207 (1) of the Act, the owner of such vehicle is entitled to seek release of the seized vehicle subject to such terms and conditions as the competent authority may impose pending further action to be taken. The owner of the vehicle is exposed both to the civil liability as well as the penalties as envisaged under Section 192-A of the Act. Rules 448-A and 448-B operate in different areas. While under Rule 448-A, an obligation is cast on the seizing and detaining officer to release the vehicle on completion of prosecution, Rule 448-B vests discretion in the Secretary, Regional Transport Authority, to release the seized vehicle. Pendency of the proceedings for imposing civil liability as well as the penalties does not, in my opinion, bar the competent authority from exercising its power of releasing the seized vehicle. In appropriate cases, the competent authority can always order release of the seized vehicle in order to ensure that its condition does not deteriorate further and its owner is not put to financial losses on account of its detention notwithstanding pendency of proceedings initiated under Section 192-A of the Act. In appropriate cases, the competent authority can always order release of the seized vehicle in order to ensure that its condition does not deteriorate further and its owner is not put to financial losses on account of its detention notwithstanding pendency of proceedings initiated under Section 192-A of the Act. It is not in dispute that till now civil liability such as the differential tax, if any, under the provisions of Section 8 of the A.P. Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1963, and penalty etc., is not fixed on the petitioner. So far, the criminal proceedings have not ended. In this situation, I do not find any justification for respondent No.1 not to exercise his power to release the petitioner’s vehicle only on the ground of pendency of a criminal case. Ordinarily, when a motor vehicle is seized on the allegation of misuse of permit, this Court has been directing its release subject to certain conditions. WP.No.22183 of 2011 is one such case where the motor vehicle of the petitioner therein was seized on allegations similar to that made in the present case. While disposing of the said Writ Petition, this Court has directed release of the seized vehicle to the petitioner therein in the following terms: “1. Respondent No.1 shall release the vehicle bearing registration No. AP/28Y – 6606 to the petitioner subject to his depositing Rs.15,000/-(Rupees fifteen thousand only) with respondent No.1 and filing an undertaking that he will not alienate or in any manner transfer the ownership of the said vehicle, pending determination of the petitioner’s liability. 2. As and when the liability is determined by respondent No.1, he is at liberty to enforce the same subject to the remedies available to the petitioner.” In my opinion, the petitioner also deserves a similar order. Accordingly, this Writ Petition is disposed of in the following terms: 1. Respondent No.1 shall release the vehicle bearing registration No. AP/01X – 6694 to the petitioner subject to his depositing Rs.15,000/-(Rupees fifteen thousand only) with respondent No.1 and filing an undertaking that he will not alienate or in any manner transfer the ownership of the said vehicle, pending determination of his liability. 2. As and when the petitioner’s liability is determined by respondent No.1 and also by the jurisdictional Magistrate, respondent No.1 is at liberty to enforce the same subject to the remedies available to the petitioner.