- (1.) BY this common order, a bunch of writ petitions being Civil writ Petition Nos. 17112, 17111, 17113, 17114, 17115, 17116, 17117, 17118, 17119 of 2002; 14262 of 2007 and 9673, 9674 of 2008 can be decided together. Parties are in agreement that for facility of reference facts can be taken from Civil Writ Petition No. 17112 of 2002.
(2.) PETITIONER has sought a writ in the nature of certiorari seeking declaration that private Bus Service Scheme published by the respondent-State on 19. 1. 2001, Annexure p-2 is violative of Articles 14 and 19 (1) (g)of the Constitution of India and is, therefore, liable to be quashed.
(3.) A reference can be made to the facts in nut shell that in pursuance to Annexure p-2, the Government had invited bids for non notified routes, for allocation of the same to the highest bidder and this according to the petitioner is not permissible, being without any authority of law, as Motor Vehicles act, 1988 (hereinafter to be referred as, 'the act') envisages no such procedure or course of action on the part of the State. It has been pointed out that under Section 99 which forms part of Chapter VI of the Act, State government for providing an efficient, adequate and properly co-ordinated road transport service in the public interest can operate stage carriage permits exclusively in favour of State Transport Undertaking to the exclusion of all other or in a partial manner i. e. to both State Transport Undertaking and private operators. In other words both can simultaneously operate the vehicles on the routes specified by the State government in consonance with the provisions of Section 99 of the Act. It has been further stated that in pursuance of the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 100 (2)of the Act, State Government published a scheme on 3. 11. 1993 which has been attached with the writ petition as Annexure p-1. A reference has been made to para 2 of the scheme wherein it has been stated that all intra-district routes which do not cover more than a total of 10 kms. on National/ state Highway, would be offered for private operation and Haryana Roadways buses will not ply on those routes. The offer made to the private operators was made conditional that the routes offered for private operators will be determined as per policy by suitable committees to be constituted by the Chief minister for each district so that the work of determining the routes could be completed expeditiously and permits would be issued to registered co-operative societies of unemployed youths having at least five members. Educational qualification was also determined. Para 4 of the scheme reads as under:-"permits would be issued to registered cooperative societies of unemployed youth having at least five members. The minimum educational qualifications of members in case of Scheduled Castes and Backward classes would be Middle pass and for others, it would be Matric pass. However, there would be no minimum educational qualifications in case of persons having, driving licence for heavy vehicles with five years experience. The age of the members of the society should be between 18 to 40 years and each member should give an affidavit and a certificate of registration with an employment Exchange, in proof of the fact that he is unemployed. " a reference can be made to Annexure to the scheme, according to which all interdistrict routes and all routes within a district which cover total of 10 kms. in length on State and National Highway combined were totally notified in favour of State transport undertaking. It will be apposite to reproduce the same:-ANNEXURE;