PANGELAN Vs. THE RTA TRICHUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ applicant was the first applicant before the Regional Transport Authority, Trichur for a permanent permit for a stage carriage on the route Varavoor - Chiyyaram, a distance of 23 miles. The intermediary stages of the route are Kundanoor, Wadakkancherry, Trichur and Koorkancherry. The 2nd respondent was the second applicant. The Regional Transport Authority after consideration of the claims of the various applicants - there were others also - granted the permit to the writ petitioner. This is the relevant part of the order of the Regional Transport Authority.

(2.) The State Transport Appellate Tribunal negatived these two grants. Regarding the first the Tribunal said that an applicant should be encouraged to build up a viable unit only if he has otherwise qualifications equal to that of the other applicants. If this rule is not applied it is said, the interests of the public will suffer and regarding monopoly the State Transport Appellate Tribunal expressed the view: -

(3.) Counsel on behalf of the petitioner has mainly urged three grounds before me. The first of these is that in insisting that there should be parity in qualifications before preference can be given to an applicant to enable him to build up a viable unit, reliance has been placed on the provision in a G.O. issued by the Madras Government which it had repeatedly been held had no statutory force and later struck down by the Supreme Court. This insistence according to counsel is therefore, unwarranted and even illegal. Further it is said this insistence has resulted in the decision being patently erroneous. Counsel is well founded in his contention that there is a provision in the G. O. that preference should be given only if qualifications are otherwise equal. But I am not prepared to say that the reliance on the principle is erroneous or the principle by itself is erroneous. The State Transport Appellate Tribunal does not purport to act in terms of the G.O. The Supreme Court itself has ruled and has relied on in certain cases on the principles enunciated in the G. O. If the principles embodied in the G.O. have been relied on by the Transport Authorities, I do not think that this Court will be justified in saying that they have acted illegally or improperly or allowed themselves to have their discretion fettered by any executive direction.