UNITED MOTOR TRANSPORT CO LTD Vs. SREELAKSHMI MOTOR TRANSPORT CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs are three private limited companies registered under the Companies Act. Their business is carriage of goods and passengers by motor vehicles. In 1937 when the Motor Vehicles Act of 1914 (8 of 1914) was in force they obtained permits to ply 22 motor vehicles of different types on the Sylhet-Shillong Road from 1 April 1937 to 31 December 1939. These permits were issued by the Assam Government, for that was the authority to issue permits under rules framed under Section 11 of the said Act. In 1939 the Motor Vehicles Act of 1914 was repealed and the Motor Vehicles Act, 4 of 1939, came into force on 1 July 1939. By Section 134 of the last mentioned Act, hereafter called "the Act," the rules framed under the Motor Vehicles Act of 1914 were kept in force, subject to some limitation and conditions not material to these appeals, for a period of nine months from the date on which the Act of 1939 came into force, that is to say, those rules remained in force up to 31 March 1940. The Assam Government exercising powers under those rules, which were thus kept in force till 3lst March 1940, renewed on 6 December 1939 those permits issued to the plaintiff companies for a period of three months, from 1 January to 31 March 1940. On 20 March 1940 those permits were again renewed by the Assam Government for a further period of three months from 1 April to 30 June 1940. As the old rules--the rules framed under Section 11, Motor Vehicles Act of 1914--ceased to have force on 31 March 1940 the Assam Government ceased to have power from after that date to issue permits and so did not issue further permits to the plaintiff companies from after that date.

(2.) The Motor Vehicles Act of 1939 is more elaborate than the earlier Act of 1914, which it repealed. Chapter 4 of the Act headed "Control of Transport Vehicles," is the only chapter relevant to the case before us. For in this case we are concerned with transport vehicles, namely, public service vehicles of two classes, stage carriages and goods vehicles. By Section 44 the Provincial Governments are required to constitute Provincial and Regional Transport Authorities by issuing notifications in the official Gazette. For one province there is to be one Provincial Transport Authority with functions, powers and duties defined in the Act. But a Provincial Government can by notification divide a province into smaller units called regions, and appoint Regional Transport Authorities for such units. The functions, powers, and duties of Regional Transport Authorities are also defined in the Act. Where no Regional Authority has been constituted to exercise jurisdiction over a particular area, the Provincial Transport Authority will have to perform the functions and discharge the duties imposed on Regional Transport Authorities, and where Regional Authorities have been constituted may, if so required by a Regional Transport Authority, perform those duties, etc., and also in cases where a particular route falls within the areas assigned to more than one Regional Authority. Section 42 of the Act requires the owner of a transport vehicle to take out a permit from the Regional Transport Authority in order to enable him to ply his vehicle in a public place (which includes a public road). Applications for permits are to be made to a Regional Transport Authority. The form and contents of application for permits of different classes of transport vehicles, stage carriages, contract carriages, private carriers of goods and public carriers of goods, and the matters that are to be taken into consideration by the Regional Transport Authority for granting or refusing such permits are defined in the different sections of Chap. 4 of the Act. The Provincial Transport Authority of Assam was constituted by the Assam Government by a notification published in the official Gazette on 22 February, 1940. Seven persons including the Home Minister of Assam constituted that body. That authority began to function from 1 April 1940. No Regional Transport Authority was or has been constituted in respect of the area over which the Sylhet-Shillong Road runs, and so all the functions, powers and duties required to be performed, exercised or discharged by a Regional Transport Authority are vested in the Provincial Transport Authority. Accordingly that Authority on 29th June 1940 "extended" the period of the permits, that had been issued by the Provincial Government under the rules framed under the Act of 1914 to the plaintiffs, from 1 July 1940 to 30 September 1940, and then again on 25 September 1940 "extended them" for a further period of three months from 1 October to 31 December 1940; copies of the relevant documents are respectively Exs. 1 (h) and 1 (i). The effect of those two documents is a material question in these appeals. On 16 July 1940 the Provincial Transport Authority of Assam issued a notice (No. M. V. 592-625) inviting applications for permits for plying motor vehicles of different types on the Sylhet-Shillong Road. The notice specified the number of vehicles, the total number being thirty-six--which was made up as following:

(3.) It also specified a number of conditions, one of them being that the maximum period of permits was to be for 5 years. No minimum period was indicated. The notice was forwarded by letters to the plaintiffs companies and other Transport Companies. In pursuance of this notice many applications for permits were made. The three plaintiffs companies combined with pro forma defendants 10 and 11, Mahari & Sons and D. C. Chaudhuri, and made an application on 24 July 1940 for permits for all the thirty-six vehicles of all the six services, (Ex. B 23, II 22) which they sent with their covering letter (Ex. B 22, II 20). On the same day they sent another letter, Ex. B 24, in which they stated that the proposed permit fees were high and asked the Provincial Transport Authority to reconsider the matter about permit fees.