SHREE LAXMI BUS TRANSPORT CO. Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are a firm carrying on the business of operating buses in the Rajkot Region. They obtained a permit to operate their buses in 1951 on the routes Palitana to Dhasa via Jamnagar and Liliya to Lathi via Jamnagar, and since then they have been operating their buses along the said routes. The stage carriage permit held by the petitioners was due to expire on or about March 20, 1958, and, therefore, on January 8, 1958, they made an application to the Regional Transport Authority, respondent No. 1, for the renewal of their permit. The Saurashtra State Road Transport Corporation also made an application for operating their buses along the same route. Both the applications were considered together and were decided by the Regional Transport Authority on July 5, 1958. The application of the petitioner was rejected and that of the Saurashtra State Road Transport Corporation was granted and a permit was ordered to be issued to the Saurashtra State Road Transport Corporation for the said routes. The petitioner preferred appeals against the orders in these two applications to respondent No. 2.' While the applications were pending before the Regional Transport Authority and thereafter during the pendency of the appeals before respondent No. 2 temporary permits were issued to the petitioners to operate their buses on the said routes. The appeals were decided by respondent No. 2 on June 24, 1959. In these appeals the order passed by the Regional Transport Authority was set aside and, the petitioners' permit was ordered to be renewed from the date of the expiry of the permit. In pursuance of this order passed in appeal by respondent No. 2, respondent No. 1 informed the petitioners that they would be issued a permit for three years with effect from the date of the expiry of the last permit, that is, from March 20, 1958. The petitioners thereafter represented to respondent No. 1 by their letter dated August 24, 1959, that the direction in the order of respondent No. 2 that the renewal of the permit should be from the date of the expiry of the last permit was illegal and void and that the Regional Transport Authority was bound to issue a permit for a, period of 3 years from the date of the issue of the renewed permit. On the same date the petitioners also sent a similar representation to respondent No. 2 and requested respondent No. 2 to direct the Regional Transport Authority to issue a permit valid for a period of three years from the date of issue of the permit. On September 2, 1959, respondent No. 1 informed the petitioners that their request for the issue of a permit valid for a period of three years from the date of issue could not be considered and that the permit would be renewed from the date of the expiry of the last permit according to the decision of the Appellate Committee of the State Transport Authority, Bombay. respond -ent No. 2 also by a communication dated September 5, 1959, informed the petitioners that since the case was of a renewal of the permit, the renewal had to he from the date of its expiry, as otherwise it could not be called a case of renewal of the permit. The petitioners were also informed that the decision once taken by the Appellate Committee could not be revised by it. The petitioners have thereafter filed the present Special Civil Application challenging the direction contained in the Appellate orders passed in Appeals Nos. 262 and 267 of 1958 by respondent No. 2 that the petitioners' permit should be renewed from the expiry of the last permit.

(2.) THE substantial contention, which has been raised in the present petition by the petitioners, is that under the provisions of Section 58 of the Motor Vehicles Act, a stage carriage permit other than a temporary permit issued under Section 62 is to be effective without renewal for a period of not less than three years and, there - ' fore, a permit granted on renewal also is to be effective without further renewal for a period of three years from the date on which it is issued. It is, therefore, urged that the period of the renewed permit should in any event he a period of three years commencing from the date of its issue and not from the date of expiry of the original permit. It is pointed out that in the present case the original permit expired on March 20, 1958, while the order granting renewal has been passed on June 24, 1959, and inasmuch as the order granting renewal makes the renewal to take effect for a period of three years not from June 24, 1959, on which date the renewal was granted, but from March 20, 1958, the effective period of the permit on renewal is less than three years, which is contrary to the provisions of Section 58 of the Act. In other words, the contention raised in the present petition is that when a permit is renewed some time after the expiry of the original permit the renewal cannot be made to be effective retrospectively from the date of the expiry of the original permit, if thereby the effective period of the renewed permit after the date of its issue is less than 3 years.

(3.) BEFORE dealing with the rival contentions, which are raised before us, it will be desirable to refer to some of the relevant provisions of Chap. IV of the Motor Vehicles Act, which deals with the control of transport vehicles in which term is included a stage carriage, with which we are concerned in the present case.