Srivastava, J. - (1.) Special Appeal No. 373 of 1960 and writ petition No. 1987 of 1960 are connected with each other and it will therefore, be convenient to dispose them of together.
(2.) By a notification published on the 6th of June 1959 the Regional Transport Authority invited applications to fill certain vacancies on the Pilibhit-Bisalpur-Bisanda route. Seventy three persons applied for stage carriage permits on the route and all the applications were published in the Gazette dated the 5th of September 1959. The seventy three applicants included Sri Nirmal Das Khattooria, Sri Mohammad Tahir and Sri Bankey Lal Vidyarthi. All the applications were considered by the Regional Transport Authority in the meetings held on the 7th and 8th of December, 1959. The other applications were rejected but permits were granted in respect of the route to Sri Bankey Lal Vidyarthi and Sri Nirmal Das Khattoo-ria. The other persons concerned submitted to the order but five appeals were filed against the decision before the State Transport Authority Tribunal, The persons who filed the appeals were Sri Mohammad Tahir, Sri Purshottam Deo, "Sri Mardan Ali Khan, Sri Sami Ullah Khan and Sri Nathu Lal Varshney. The appeals were considered together" by the Tribunal on the 23rd of June 1960. It dismissed the appeals of Sri Purshottam Deo, Sri Mardan AH Khan and Sri Sami Ullah Khan and by the same order it cancelled the permits in favour of Sri Bankey Lal Vidyarthi and Nirmal Das Khattooria and instead granted permits to Sri Mohammad Tahir and Nathu Lal Varshney. Thinking that the tribunal had granted his permit to Sri Mohammad Tahir, Sri Nirmal Das Khattooria filed civil writ petition No. 2155 of 1960 in this Court on the 7th of July 1960 and prayed that the order of the Tribunal dated the 23rd of June 1960 be quashed by a writ of certiorari. He also claimed a writ of mandamus commanding the Regional Transport Authority not to interfere with his right to ply his stage carriage on the route in question under the permit duly granted to him by the Regional Transport Authority by its order dated 7/8-12-1959. The only persons impleaded in the petition were the State Transport Authority (Tribunal), the Regional Transport Authority and Sri Mohammad Tahir. Bankey Lal Vidyarthi too was dissatisfied with the cancellation of his permit by the Tribunal. He in his turn filed writ petition No. 1987 of 1960. He however prayed only for a writ of certiorari quashing the order of the Tribunal dated the 23rd of June 1960. He impleaded in his petition both Sri Mohammad Tahir and Sri Nathu Lal Varshney, the persons in whose favour the Tribunal had granted permits, and the State Transport Authority (Tribunal).
(3.) Though both the writ petitions were filed against the same order of the Tribunal they were based on different grounds. The only ground pressed in support of his petition by Sri Nirmal Das Khattooria was that the Tribunal had no justification to upset a decision of the Regional Transport Authority on a question of fact and in any case had no justification for interfering with the discretion exercised by the Transport Authority. The petition was heard by Mr. Justice Jagdish Sahai who did not accept the contention put forward and dismissed the petition by the order dated 26-7-1960, the subject of special appeal No. 373 of 1960.;