DAMODAR DAS SITAL DASS Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY REWA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. It has been referred to this Full Bench in view of conflict of authorities in this Court on the interpretation of Section 68-F (1-D) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939.

(2.) DAMODARDAS Sitaldas, who is the petitioner in this petition, holds a stage carriage permit for the route Hanumana-Telgawan. This route is an interstatal route as Hanumana is in Madhya Pradesh and Telgawan in Uttar Pradesh. By a notice dated 18th February 1976, the Regional Transport Authority has invited applications for grant of a return trip permit for the route Bidhauli-Sidhi via sonbarsa-Amaliya-Bahari-Kubari. Whole of this route lies in Madhya Pradesh, but a part of it, which lies between Amaliya and Bahari, overlaps the interstatal route Hanumana-Telgawan. The Madhya Pradesh State Transport Corporation, which is a State Transport Undertaking, published Scheme No. 39 in December 1965 under Section 68-C. This Scheme, which is still awaiting approval, modification or rejection, relates to certain interestatal routes including the route Hanumana-Telgawan. The Scheme proposes that these routes will be operated by the Corporation. The petitioner's contention is that in view of this scheme and section 68-F (1-D) of the Act, the Regional Transport Authority has no jurisdiction to grant a permit for any part of the route Hanumana-Telgawan or for any route overlapping any part of this route even if such part or the route for which permit is applied for lies wholly in Madhya Pradesh. The petitioner further contends that if the Regional Transport Authority cannot grant a permit, it logically follows that it cannot also invite applications for such a permit. On these grounds, the petitioner prays for quashing of the notice inviting applications for permit for the route Bidhauli-Sidhi which, as earlier stated, partly overlaps the route Hanumana-Telgawan. The petition is opposed by the intervener, Swami Prasad Soni, who in pursuance of the notice has applied for a permit on the route Bidhauli-Sidhi,

(3.) THE relevant sections of the Act are as follows: