H CCHANNIAH PROPH P CMOTOR SERVICE Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY CHICKMAGALUR AND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The complaint made in this writ petition Is against the proposal on the part of the Regional Transport Authority, Chickmagalur to assign timings to the various operators who were granted permits by it in December, 1961 and January 1962, in respect of various routes to which reference would be unnecessary in the course of this order. It is not disputed that when permits were granted to those operators during those two months, the Regional Transport Authority assigned to those operators timings which had to be in operation until timings were permanently assigned to them. On April 16, 1962, the Regional Transport Authority made an announcement that it would assign permanent timings to those operators after hearing the parties. That assignment was not made by it on the date specified in that announcement. There was once again another announcement in that regard and the last announcement which was made by the Regional Transport Authortiy was the one made on July 5, 1962 in which it was announced that at its meeting to be held on July 26, 27 and 28, 1962, the assignment of the timings would be decided upon.

(2.) The petitioner who operates his stage carriage on the route between Kadur and Shimoga, objected to the Regional Transport Authority embarking on the assignment of timings in that way. His objection was that before any timings could be assigned to any of those ether operators the Regional Transport Authority should call upon them to make an application for a revision of the timings already provisionally assigned to them and publish those applications under Section 57(3), Motor Vehicles Act, and dispose of them according to law. In support of that objection Mr. Hegde has urged before us the contention that once permits were granted to the operators and timings were assigned to them although tentatively, the Regional Transport Authority completed the performance of every duty which it had to perform under Section 57 of the Act, without any part of that duty remaining outstanding, which could now be performed by it as it proposes to do. That being so, it was urged that the only method by which the Regional Transport Authority can now assign timings to those operators was by calling for applications for that purpose and by deciding those applications by the adoption of the procedure prescribed in Section 57 of the Act.

(3.) I do not find it possible to say that Mr. Hegde Is right in making this submission. One of the particulars to be stated in an application for the grant of a stage carriage permit, as can be seen from Section 46(c) of the Act, is the time table which the applicant proposes.