Tarun Agarwala, J. - (1.) In 1968, the petitioners were granted a joint stage carriage permit on the Muzaffarnagar-Budhana-Kandhla-Issa Purtil and allied routes by the Regional Transport Authority, Meerut pursuant to which permit No. 1395 was issued in favour of the petitioners. Since then the permit was being renewed from time to time and the same was lastly renewed till 8.6.1977. On 21.2.1977, the petitioners sent an application for the renewal of the permit by post. On 30.3.1977 the petitioners sent another application for renewal in which they enclosed part-A of the permit which according to the petitioners could not be enclosed in the earlier application. The application dated 30.3.1977 was published on 29.10.1977. The petitioners filed an objection dated 17.11.1977 intimating that the application for renewal is dated 21.2.1977 and not 30.3.1977 and, therefore, necessary corrigendum be issued or published. It transpires that the application dated 21.2.1977 which was sent by post was received in the office of the respondents on 30.8.1977 and instead of issuing a corrigendum, the application dated 21.2.1977 was itself published on 21.2.1978. Before the authority, the petitioners filed two affidavits dated 30.1.1978 and 15.4.1978 stating therein that the application for renewal dated 21.2.1977 was sent by post on 22.2.1977.
(2.) Upon the publication of the applications of the petitioners dated 21.2.1977 and 30.3.1977, the respondent Nos.3 to 7 filed objections before the authority stating therein that the application for the renewal of the permit was belated and was barred by time. The respondents, contemplating that a vacancy was likely to be caused due to the non-renewal of the permit, also filed applications for the grant of a permit on the expected vacancy anticipating that the renewal would be / refused by the authority.
(3.) The Regional Transport Authority after considering the two applications of the petitioners and the objections of the respondents by its resolution dated 24.5.1978 renewed the permit of the petitioners and rejected the objections and the applications for the grant of a permit of the respondents.;