M RAMASWAMY Vs. KARNATAKA STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant is the holder of a stage carriage permit on the route between bangalore and hosur via agara, sarjapura and bagalur, for six single trips. In the present appeal he is aggrieved of the Order dated 9-7-1997 passed by the learned single judge directing the appellant that he can operate only on the aforesaid route covered by his permit and not on the deviated route permitted by the state transport authority (in short "the s. t. a. " ).

(2.) THERE is no dispute about the foundational facts which lie in a short compass. Admittedly, for travelling from bangalore to hosur there are two routes from madiwala checkpost, which is located at a distance of 8 kms from bangalore. One goes via agara-sarjapura-bagalur and the other via hebbagodi-chandapura-attibele (hereinafter referred to as route nos. 1 and 2 respectively ). Admittedly, the said routes are notified routes under the anekal pocket scheme approved on 23-9-1959 and published under Section 66-d (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, (in short "1939 act") and modified by notification dated 3-1-1994 published under Section 102 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (in short "1988 act" ). It is also not in dispute that the scheme as originally published was of complete exclusion i. e. , on the said routes the private operators could not at all have operated as held by a bench of this court in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation v Narayana rao.

(3.) SUBSEQUENTLY, the state government in Order to remedy the hardships of the existing inter-state private operators, like the present appellant, modified the scheme under the aforesaid notification dated 3-1-1994. The modification as notified is to the following effect: "modification of scheme of state transport undertakings, anekal Section in the approved scheme published in notification No. Hd80 (2) tmf 59, dated 15th april, 1959, under sub-section (3) of Section 68 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, in mysore gazette on 23rd april, 1959, for item No. 3, the following shall be substituted, namely: