RATTAN LAL GUPTA SURAJ BHAN HARISH CHANDRA MESSRS BHUMARGYATAYAT Vs. SURAJ BHAN:THE STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY:THE STATE TRANSPORT APPELLATE TRIBUNAL:THE STATE TRANSPORT APPELLATE TRIBUNAL U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There are three groups of appeals with certificate directed against the judgment of the Allahabad High Court of 30th September, 1969. The first group (Civil Appeals Nos. 1592-1595 of 1971) is by Rattan Lal Gupta, Uma Sharan Sharma, Sewa Ram, Dharam Das Agarwal, Land Lines Pvt. Ltd., Smt. Kusum Lata and Tribhuvan Kumar, the last two being the widow and son of Madan Mohan Lal, deceased. The second group (Civil Appeals Nos. 1628 1631 of 1971) is by Suraj Bhan (in Civil Appeal No. 1628 of 1971) and others. The third group (Civil Appeals Nos. 1634-1639 of 1971) is by Harish Chandra, Mahendra Kumar Tayal, Shanti Swarup Jain, Mitranand Kaushik, Baru Mal Agarwal, Gur Prasad, Richpal Singh and Bhagwan Singh Sambi. There are also two Special Leave petitions Nos. 3094-3095 of 1971 which have not been admitted but by an order of this Court dated 7th February, 1972, the petitioners were allowed to intervene in these appeals.

(2.) The facts relating to the appeals have got to be narrated in some detail. On October 13, 1950, a route for stage carriage permit described as Muzaffarnagar-Budhana-Kandhla (hereinafter the shorter route) was classified as Rs. B' class route and the strength of the permit was fixed at 17. On July 18, 1958, the Regional Transport Authority (briefly RTA) Meerut decided to extend the route by about six miles upto Issumpurteel (hereinafter the longer route). On March 23, 1959, the RTA increased the strength of the shorter route from 17 to 25 under section 47 (3) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (briefly the Act). As there were already 17 permits in operation, the RTA on June 13, 1959, advertised for 8 vacancies in the shorter route and fixed July 27, 1959, as the last date for receiving the applications and it appears 1117 applications were received. The State Transport Appellate Tribunal (briefly STA) approved the extension of the route to Issupurteel on August 8, 1959. The applications which were received in response to the advertisement were published in the U. P. Gazette of September 15, 1962. There were some other applications on June 16, 1963, including a second application of M. N. Kaushik. These were also published in the U. P. Gazette on June 16, 1963 Mohd. Ibrahim filed his objections to the applications published on September 15, 1962. He objected to the increase in the strength and to the route being wrongly described in the advertisement. On 2nd to 4th August, 1961, the RTA had decided that there was only one route upto Issupurteel and that applications presented either up to Kandhla or upto Issupurteel should be considered as presented for the entire route viz, the longer route. The RTA also held that Muzaffanagar-Budhana-Kandhla route ceased to exist in 1958 by referring to its earlier resolution No.71 of 18th July 1958 and that thereafter the only route that survived was the longer route upto Issupurteel. It appears most of the existing permits for the shorter route were in the meantime converted into the longer route under Section 57 (8) of the Act Suraj Bhan's application for a permit was published on November 2, 1963. Meanwhile 7 renewal applications from the existing permit holders were received between November 4, 1963 and May 18, 1964, in anticipation of expiry of their permits. The appellants in the first group objected to these renewals and prayed for grant of fresh permits to them for the longer route. On June 13, 1964, their objections to the renewals as well as those for fresh permits were published in the Gazette. On July 4, 1964, some more applications were published for the longer route. To give some more details, thirteen applications for the longer route were published on July 1, 1961; twenty-seven on June 15, 1963 and two on November 2, 1963. Mohd. Ibrahim and his union of the existing operators objected to these applications. On 28th and 29th August, 1964, the RTA considered only 11 renewal applications and 12 fresh applications and other applications were not even put up before the RTA. The RTA ordered renewal of 11 permits and rejected the objection to the renewal of the appellants in the first group as well as their applications for fresh permits. The ground given was that none of the objectors and 12 appellants for fresh permits had turned up. The appellants in the first group appealed to the STA impleading 8 out of the 11 renewed permit holders. The STA by its order dated November 10, 1964, set aside the order of the RTA dated 28th/29th August, 1964. Four writ petitions were filed in 1964 against the order of STA dated November 10, 1964. The appellants in the third group had applied for permits on the shorter route. Certain persons had objected to their applications on the ground that the shorter route had ceased to exist. On May 6-8, 1965, their objections were overruled, and the RTA granted 8 permits to the said appellants. This order was upheld by the STA on August 29, 1967. There were 19 other writ petitions of 1967 and 1968 before the High Court which were also heard together. Of these five petitions were directed against the order of the STA of August 29, 1967. Seven petitions were directed against the orders of both the RTA and of the STA made respectively on 6th to 8th May, 1965 (item 30(a)) and on 29th August, 1967. Seven more petitions were directed against the orders of the RTA of 6th to 8th May, 1965 (item (c)) and of the STA of 29th August, 1967.

(3.) With reference to the fist group of writ petitions, the High Cout held that the strength of 25 had not been fixed by the RTA for the longer route. It futher held that the grant of six permits fothwith on the longer route was illegal that since the number of applicants fo permits on this route were in excess of the number of permits which could be granted, no grant could be made without first fixing the strength of the longer route. The High Court, therefore, set aside the order of the STA dated November 10, 1964. It also at the same time set aside that part of the order of the RTA of 28th/29th August, 1964, by which their applications for fresh permits had also been rejected. The High Court also quashed the orders of the RTA and STA dated May 6-8, 1965 and August 29, 1967 respectively. The High Court further observed that