D PAPIAH Vs. MYSORE STATE TRANSPORT APPELLATE TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On the application of the appellant, the Regional Transport Authority, Mandya, granted him a contract carriage permit on February 8, 1972, valid for the entire State of Karnataka. The grant was cancelled by the Karnataka State Transport Appellate Tribunal by its order dated August 19, 1972 on appeal preferred by the third respondent, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. The appellant filed a writ petition in the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore challenging the order of the Appellate Tribunal. The High Court dismissed the petition by its order dated November 29, 1974 agreeing with the Appellate Tribunal that the Regional Transport Authority, Mandya, had no jurisdiction to grant permits valid throughout the State of Karnataka in view of the first proviso to sub-section (1) of Sec. 45 of the Motor Vehicles Act. 1939 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) The correctness of that decision is questioned by the appellant in this appeal by special leave.

(2.) Section 45 (1) with its first proviso which is the only part of the section relevant for the present purpose is in these terms:

(3.) Before proceeding to consider the merits of the rival contentions as to the meaning of the word 'area' in the first proviso to Section 45 (1), it would be helpful to refer to certain other provisions of the Act which seem to be relevant in this context. The appellant had asked for a contract carriage permit. Section 2 (3) defines a contract carriage as a 'motor vehicle' which carries passengers for hire or reward under a contract for the use of the vehicle as a whole either on a time basis or from one point to another, and in both cases without stopping to pick up or set down along the line of route passengers not included in the contract. A motor vehicle is defined in Section 2 (18) as a mechanically propelled vehicle "adapted for use upon roads." Section 49 lays down the particulars that an application for a contract carriage permit shall contain, and the 'area' for which the permit is required is one of the matters that the application must state. The word route which has been used in association with 'area' in Sec. 45 (1) is defined by Section 2 (28A) as "a line of travel which specifies the highway which may be traversed by a motor vehicle between one terminus and another." Section 2 (1) defines 'area' as follows: