SATYANARAYANA TRANSPORTS PVT LTD Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY GUNTUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The substantial question raised by all these writ petitions is whether the Regional Transport Authorities and the State Transport Authority composing of officials only were duly constituttd. So, all the writ petitions could be disposed of by a common judgment. Though the reliefs asked for in the different sets of these petitions are different- some claiming either writs of Prohibition or writs of mandamus and others claiming writs of certiorari-the main basis of these petitions is the alleged want of competence of these Transport Authorities which did not include non-official members. A large number of them seek to prohibit the Transport Authorities either from giving effect to the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act bearing on the implementation of the schemes approved by the Government or to prohibit them from dealing with matters pending before them and concerning the petitioners. To this category belong Writ Appeal No. 56 of 1961 and W.P. Nos. 795, 827, 898, 570, 586, 591, 665, 668, 693. 721, 724, 728, 737, 739, 745, 746, 752, 771 and 774 of 1961. In these petitions, the chief controversy no longer survives, as the Government reconstituted Regional Transport Authorities nominating a non-official member also to each of these bodies. In W.P. Nos. 794 and 798 of 1961, a request is made for the issuance of a writ of mandamus to direct the authorities to forbear from implementing the orders of the Regional Transport Authorities rendering ineffective the stage carriage permits held by the petitioners. The rest of the petitions seek the removal on certiorari the orders passed by these authorities either granting reliefs to the opposite parties to the prejudice of the petitioners therein or imposing penalties or punishments or other disabilities on the one or the other of the petitioners. In the last two groups, the validity of the constitution of the Transport Authorities is still a live issue. W.P. Nos. 795, 826 and 898 of 1961 forming one set and W.P. Nos. 794 and 798 of 1961 forming another set, relate to the implementation of the schemes of nationalisation of Motor Transport approved by the Government. These petitions came to be filed in the following circumstances.

(2.) Act C of 1956 was passed by the Central Legislature amending the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (IV of 1939) inserting Chapter IV-A enabling the State Governments to carry on the business of Motor Transport. Under section 68-A, occurring in that Chapter, a State Transport Undertaking, hereinafter called as the Corporation for facility of reference, could be formed by the State Government and section 68-C authorised the State Transport Undertaking to prepare a scheme for the purpose of providing an efficient, adequate, economical and properly co-ordinated Road Transport Service in the public interest. Taking advantage of the provisions of Chapter IV-A, the State of Andhra Pradesh conceived the idea of nationalising gradually the Motor Transport in the State. Pursuant to this, a Corporation was created in the State. The Corporation framed schemes for taking over the transport business in two of the districts in the State in the first instance. They were approved by the State Government and were put into effect in those districts and there is no contest now regarding them.

(3.) In the year 1960, the Corporation prepared ten schemes for the Guntur district to take over the Bus Transport from private operators and published them in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette. Some of these schemes were challenged in this Court in writ petitions on various grounds. A Bench of this Court consisting of Manohar Pershad and Kumarayya, JJ., quashed several of them in the view that they were vitiated by personal bias of the Minister who heard the objections of the operators to the schemes., (1961) 1 An.W.R. (N.R.C.) 40. After this decision, the other schemes also were impugned by operators who were affected by them. But the writ petitions were dismissed for reasons which need not be mentioned here. After the disposal of the writ petitions by Manohar Pershad and Kumarayya, JJ., the Chief Minister reheard the objections in regard to one of the schemes and approved the scheme as prepared and published by the Corporation in G.O. Ms. No. 2337 (Road Transport) dated 26th October, 1960. Thereafter, the Corporation applied to the Regional Transport Authority, Guntur, for stage carriage permits for the routes involved in that scheme. Thereupon, the Tribunal issued notices to the concerned operators as required by rule 11 of the Andhra Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1957, intimating them that the permits held by them would be rendered ineffective beyond 15th August, 1961.