V PRAKASA RAO Vs. JOINT TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER AND SECRETARY STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY A P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The decision of these case depends on the determination of the question as to the validity of subsection (2) of section 58 of the Motor Vehicles Act IV of 1939 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The question is whether subsection (2) of section 58 of the Act is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) The facts and circumstances provoking the problem may be made plain at the outset. The petitioners are holders of stage carriage permits with varying dates of expiry of their permits. Under the proviso to subsection(2) of section 58 of , the Act an application for the renewal has to be made 120 days before the date of expiry of the permit. By virtue of the proviso to subsection (3) of section 58 the Regional Transport Authority is empowered to entertain an application for the renewal of a permit after the last date specified in the proviso to subsection (2) if the application is made not more than 15 days after the said last date. In other words, the Regional Transport Authority is enabled by this proviso to condone a delay of 15 days in making the application for the renewal of a permit under subsection (2). It is common ground that the petitioners in these cases did not make the applications for the renewal of permits within the period prescribed by the proviso to subsection (2). Their applications for renewal were rejected by the competent authorities on the ground that the applications were not received within the period of limitation prescribed by the proviso to subsection (2) of section 58 of the Act.The further appeals by the petitioners to the appellate authority were also unsuccessful; that in brief is the genesis of these writ petitions.

(3.) The first and foremose contention of the learned Counsel for the petitioners Mr.Venkataramana, is that the procedure contemplated for the grant of new permits as well as for renewal of permits is one and the same, that for the grant of a stage carriage permit an application has to be made under subsection (2) of section 58 six weeks before the date on which it is desired that the permit should take effect and that the prescription "120" days before the date of expiry of the permit for making applications for the renewal of permits is without any rational basis. It is further argued that the separate classification of applicants for state carriage permits and contract carriage permits for the purpose of making applications for renewal of permits and prescribing different periods of limitation for making the applications for renewal is irrational as both stage carriages as well as contract carriages are passenger vehicles. Therefore it is submitted that clause (a) of the.proviso to subsection (2) of section 58 of the Act is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.