ANAMALAIS BUS TRANSPORT LTD Vs. KUNHIPPALU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant seeks to vary the judgment by a learned Judge of this Court, whereby the State Transport Appellate Tribunals order has been vacated, and the writ petition against the order allowed.

(2.) The facts necessary for deciding the appeal are that the Regional Transport Authority had invited applications for the grant of a stage carriage permit in the route Chalakudy Kuzhoor via Ashtamichira, Vynthala, Annamanada, and Valiyaparamba. Several persons had applied and the Regional Authority granted the permit to Shri

(3.) To appreciate the ground, on which the writ been allowed, some more facts should be stated. The route in question is 18 miles long, and was a new route, because no bus had been earlier operating along the entire route. Six buses, however, of which five belong to the appellant company, commonly known as A.B.T., were running on the first six miles of the route, which lay from Chalakudi to Ashtamichira. For the next six miles from Ashtamichira to Annamanada, there was as yet no bus traffic, which part of the route has been referred to as a virgin sector. A bus of a third person was operating over the next three miles from Annamanada to Valiyaparamba, and one bus that belongs to the appellant was running over the last three miles from Valiyaparamba to Kuzhoor. It is also not disputed that another bus, owned by the appellant, was operating along a different route, i. e., between Chalakudy and Kuzhoor, which route goes from Ashtamichira to Mala instead of Annamanada, and joins the present route at Valiyaparamba, with the result of this bus covering nine out of the 18 miles of the new route. The position, therefore, is that out of the seven buses on parts of the route, five belong to the appellant, two to others, and in addition to the five, another bus belonging to the appellant is operating a different route, but between the same termini. It follows that there is concentration of permits over the routes in the hands of the appellant.