Sidhu, J. - (1.) The only point which falls for determination in this special appeal is whether it would be lawful for a Regional Transport Authority under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (for short, the Act to grant or renew a contract carriage permit to a private operator for the whole of Rajasthan without any curtailment in respect of the areas or routes covered by various schemes of nationalisation of passenger transport services as approved by the State Government in accordance with the provisions of Section 68-D of the Act. II has arisen in the following circumstances.
(2.) Mehmood (respondent 3 herein) and a number of other private operators made their respective applications to the Regional Transport Authority, Jaipur (respondent 2 herein) under Section 49 of the Act for the grant or renewal of contract carriage permits for the whole of Rajasthan. The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (the appellant herein) which constitutes the "state transport undertaking" as defined in Section 68A (b) of the Act, objected to the grant or renewal as applied for. The Regional Transport Authority partly upheld the objection and consequently granted or renewed the permits in question attaching to each of them the condition that the permit holder shall not use his vehicle on the nationalised routes. Aggrieved by the said condition, the permit holders filed separate appeals before the State Transport Appellate Tribunal (respondent 1 herein) for the deletion of the condition from their respective permits. By its common order, dated, January 28, 1982, the Tribunal allowed all the appeals, including the one by respondent 3 herein and quashed the aforementioned condition with the result that the Regional Transport Authority was required to grant or renew the contract carriage permits to all the private operators for the whole of Rajasthan as applied for by them, without any curtailment in respect of the areas or routes covered by various schemes of nationalisation of passenger transport services, as approved by the State Government in accordance with the provisions of Section 68-D of the Act The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (for short, the Corporation) challenged the order of the Tribunal by way of several writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Con-situation of India. According to the Corporation, the Tribunal acted without jurisdiction and committed grave errors of law in deleting the condition attached to the permits as granted/renewed by the Regional Transport Authority. By his judgment dated December 20, 1962, the learned single Judge dismissed all the writ petitions leaving the parties to bear their own costs. Aggrieved by such dismissal, the Corporation has preferred this special appeal
(3.) The learned Advocate General who appeared as counsel for the Corporation it this special appeal referred to various provisions of the Act, the rules made thereunder and the approved schemes of nationalisation of passenger transport services in Rajasthan and also relied on a Division Bench ruling of this Court in Special Appeal No. 8 of 1968. Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation v. Regional Transport Authority and others, and five other connected appeals decided in October 13, 1978, in support of his argument that the judgment of the learned single Judge and for that matter of the State Transport Appellate Tribunal below, are contrary to the provisions of the Act and the rules and to the approved schemes of nationalisation. He mainly relied on the aforementioned judgment of the Division Bench to buttress his argument to the effect that no permit can be granted except in accordance with the provisions of the approved schemes and that since the net result of the deletion of the aforementioned condition, would be to leave the grantees free to use their vehicles in contravention of the approved schemes, the condition must be restored for the purpose of giving effect to the approved schemes.;