D RKARIGOWDA Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY HASSAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ Petition has some connection with the Scheme for nationalisation of Road transport services on certain of the routes in Hassan District, which was the subject- matter of Writ Petition No. 72 of 1960 and connected petitions in which we have just pronounced the order. This Writ Petition is by four private operators of transport services in Hassan District, three of whom were petitioners in the aforesaid batch of Writ Petitions. It came to be filed in the following circumstances:

(2.) Stage carriage permits of about 116 operators of the said District including those of the petitioners herein were due to expire at the end of September 1959. All these operators had applied to the Regional Transport Authority, Hassan, for renewal of their permits. All these applications were advertised under section 57 (3) of the Motor Vehicles Act by a notification which appeared in the Mysore Gazette dated the 3rd of September 1959, fixing the 12th of October 1959 as the date for hearing of applications and representations, if any, made in respect of them.

(3.) In the meanwhile, a draft scheme for nationalisation of services on certain of the routes in the District prepared by the Mysore Government Road Transport Department was published in the Mysore Gazette dated the 6th of August 1959. Thereupon, the General Manager of the said Department filed objections to the renewal applications of the petitioners and other operators claiming that the renewals prayed for should be refused for the reason that there was already a proposal to nationalise the services in accordance with the said draft scheme.