SHAHUBUDHEEN Vs. STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As the issue involved in these writ petitions is the same, they are taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common judgment. For the sake of convenience, the reference to facts and exhibits is from W.P.(C).No. 9 of 2020.

(2.) The petitioners are all stage carriage operators who are aggrieved by the stand taken by the respondent authorities under the Motor Vehicles Act that, for obtaining a fresh stage carriage permit, they have to offer a vehicle that is not older than 8 years, for operation under the permit. The stand taken by the respondents is stated to be based on the decision taken by the State Transport Authority [STA] at its meeting on 16.01.2019, the minutes pertaining to which are produced as Ext.P3. The relevant portion of Ext.P3 minutes reads as follows:

(3.) In the case of all the petitioners, the regular permits sought for by them on various routes were sanctioned with the rider that the vehicles offered for operation under the permits would have to be not older than 8 years. Assailing the objectionable condition imposed in the orders sanctioning the permit, as well as the decision of the STA on the basis of which such a condition was imposed, the petitioners in W.P. (C).Nos.27745, 28971 and 30597 of 2019 approached this Court through their respective writ petitions, and obtained interim orders directing a consideration of their applications for issuance of temporary permits on the respective routes, without insisting on the condition as regards age of the vehicles.