MADHYA PRADESH STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner seeks a writ of certiorari for quashing 29 temporary permits granted to the Raipur Transport company (Private) Limited, Raipur (respondent No. 3) by the Regional Transport authority, Raipur (respondent No. 1) in exercise of powers under Section 62 (c) of the Motor Vehicles Act. Annexure 'a' is the list of the 29 routes for which the temporary permits have been granted.

(2.) OUT of the said routes, some are partially affected by Scheme No. 13 and others by Scheme No. 23 notified under Chapter IV-A of the Motor Vehicles Act. Scheme no. 31 has also been brought into operation as a result of which all the 29 routes are completely covered. The three schemes are under challenge in writ petitions filed by the third respondent. In Scheme Nos. 13 and 23 this Court refused to stay the operation of the schemes, but passed conditional orders. They are reproduced below:

(3.) DURING the pendency of the writ petition before this Court the permits held by the third respondent on the said routes had expired and the third respondent had filed applications for renewal of the same. These applications could not be disposed of and were kept pending in pursuance of the orders, referred to above. The third respondent was, however, granted temporary permits for all the 29 routes under Section 62 (d ). On the expiry of the period of the temporary permits the third respondent applied for fresh temporary permits for all the 29 routes, this time under Section 62 (c) of the Motor Vehicles Act. In the applications filed under section 62 (c) the only ground urged was as under: