H.R. Sodhi, J. - (1.) THIS writ petition challenges the validity of an order dated 16th September, 1970, Annexure 'C, passed by the Regional Transport Authority, Ambala, Respondent, whereby the application of the petitioner -company for renewal of its six regular contract carriage permits was declined to be entertained on the ground that the Respondent had no jurisdiction to consider the same and that the application should have been made to the State Transport Authority, Himachal Pradesh, Simla. A similar order passed by the Respondent affecting writ petitioner in Civil Writ 3893 of 1970 and raising common questions of law and fact is the subject matter of attack in that writ petitioner as well. Both the cases stand disposed of by the present judgment.
(2.) THE petitioner (hereinafter described as the Company) is incorporated under the Indian Companies Act and working under the name and style of the Himalaya Transport Syndicate Private Limited. Its registered office is admittedly at Simla in Himachal Pradesh. It has been holding contract carriage permits, which may also be called as permits for taxi -cabs, for a number of years extending as far back as before partition of the country in the year 1947. These permits were issued by the Respondent authority in the United Punjab and continued to be renewed from time to time under the Motor Vehicles Act (Act 4 of 1939) as amended up -to -date, and hereafter called the Act. They were last renewed by the Respondent on 18th September, 1967, as per resolution, Annexure R -1, which was after the re -organisation of the State of Punjab into the State of Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Himachal Pradesh under the Punjab Re -organisation Act, 1966 (Act 31 of 1966), referred to hereafter as the Re -organisation Act, The operational area of these permits, before the reorganisation, was comprised of Punjab plains plus Kalka -Simla and other connected group of hill roads and the same was maintained when the permits were renewed after the formation of Haryana State. The permits expired after the reorganisation on 30th June, 1967, and applications for their renewal on regular basis were duly made. The Chairman of the Respondent authority in the first instance issued temporary permits for a period of four months from 1st July, 1967, to 31st October, 1967, and the operational area was restricted to the whole of Haryana State plus the usual Kalka -Simla with connected group of hill roads. This action of the Chairman was confirmed at a meeting the Respondent authority held on 18th September, 1967, and permits were renewed for the aforesaid areas for a further period of three years on the same conditions as were attached to them earlier, It was decided to recommend the case of the Company to the State Transport Authority, Himachal Pradesh, for grant of temporary countersignatures for Kalka -Simla and other hill roads pending finalisation of a joint agreement between the two States presumably with regard to the issue of permits and countersignatures thereof by the two States. It may be mentioned that on the recommendation of the Respondent, the countersignatures were sanctioned by the State Transport Authority, Himachal Pradesh, for route or routes lying within its territorial jurisdiction. Section 63 of the Act requires that a permit granted in one State cannot operate in another State unless countersigned by the State Transport Authority of that other State. It was in view of this prohibition that the permits issued or renewed by the Respondent authority bad to be countersigned by the State Transport Authority of Himachal Pradesh before services could be allowed to ply on Kalka -Simla and other hill roads. Under Section 30 if the owner of a motor vehicle ceases to reside or have his place of business at the address already recorded in the certificate of registration of the vehicle, he is enjoined to intimate his new address to the registering authority by which the certificate of registration was issued, or if the new address is within the jurisdiction of another registering authority, then to that other registering authority, within a prescribed time. In order to carry out the scheme of the Act, rules were framed by the erstwhile Punjab Government and they will be inferred to as the rules. It is a common ground that the rules have been adopted by the State of Haryana after reorganisation.
(3.) THE period of validity of the renewed permits again expired on 30th June, 1970, and the Company made an application for renewal in accordance with the rules. This time the Respondent authority took the view that the petitioner was neither residing nor had its principal place of business in Haryana and that as the vehicles were proposed to be used in two different States, the application for renewal, which in substance was an application for the grant of new permits, could only be made under Section 45 to the State Transport Authority of Himachal Pradesh within whose jurisdiction the Company had its principal place of business. There is no dispute that the town of Kalka lies in Haryana whereas Simla is in Himachal Pradesh. The General Manager of the Company filed an affidavit before the Respondent authority giving certain facts about its business. The case of the petitioner was that its vehicles were registered at Ambala parked at Kalka where an up -to -date workshop was maintained and that road tax was being paid to Haryana authorities. It was asserted that the permits were valid for the whole of the State of Haryana and Kalka was the principal place of business of the Company. The Respondent, however, took into consideration different sets of facts and came to the conclusion that the principal place of business was not Kalka bat Himachal Pradesh. It relied mainly upon the following: (i) Out of the total area on which the vehicles of the Company actually operate 99 per cent lies in Himachal Pradesh no matter that the permits are valid for the entire State of Haryana as well. (ii) Assessment of income tax of the Company was made by the Income Tax Officer, Companies Circle I(i), Patiala during the last three financial years. (iii) Registered office of the Company is located on The Mall, Simla. (iv) The accounts of the Company are being transacted though the National and Grindleys Bank, Ltd., Simla, and Punjab National Bark, Kalka. (v) Out of the three directors of the Company, the Chairman resides at Simla and the other two at Delhi, outside the State of Haryana. (vi) There are five share -holders in all and two of them reside in Pakistan. (vii) A large proportion of the passengers tax amounting to Rs. 1,55,438.84 is paid in Himachal Pradesh as against of Rs. 7,292.80 paid in Haryana. (viii) The joint agreement arrived at between Himachal Pradesh and Haryana in March, 1968, provides that 30 permits could be issued by each State for Kalka -Simla route and the Company could therefore, under the agreement, apply to Himachal Pradesh.;