For the Reshetnyak-class homeomorphisms \(\varphi :\Omega \rightarrow Y\) , where \(\Omega \) is a domain in some Carnot group and Y is a metric space, we obtain an equivalent description as the homeomorphisms which induce the bounded composition operator \( \varphi ^*:\textrm{Lip}(Y)\rightarrow L_q^1(\Omega ), \) where \(1\le q\le \infty \) , as \(\varphi ^*u=u\circ \varphi \) for \(u\in \textrm{Lip}(Y)\) . We demonstrate the utility of our approach by characterizing the homeomorphisms \(\varphi :\Omega \rightarrow \Omega '\) of domains in some Carnot group \({\mathbb {G}}\) which induce the bounded composition operator \( \varphi ^*: L^1_p(\Omega ')\cap \textrm{Lip}_{\textrm{loc}}(\Omega ')\rightarrow L^1_q (\Omega ),\quad 1\le q \le p\le \infty , \) on homogeneous Sobolev spaces. The new proof of this known criterion is much shorter than the one already available, requires a minimum of tools, and enables us to obtain new properties of the homeomorphisms in question.