S KRISHNASWAMY MUDALIAR Vs. P S PALANI PILLAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KRISHNASWAMI Mudaliar the appellant in W. A. No. 56 of 1956 had a permit which authorised him to run a bus M. D. J. 971 between Vellore and thiruvannamalai. On 1st December, 1953 the Regional Transport Officer, Vellore, varied the conditions of the permit which Krishnaswami Mudaliar held so as to enable him to run the bus upto Thanlpedi. In effect this gave him an extended route of 20 miles. Similarly Kumaraswaml the appellant in W. A. No. 57 of 1956 held a permit which enabled him to operate bus No. M. D. J. 1012 between Vellore and Thiruvannamalai. On 15th January 1954. the Regional Transport Officer, Vellore, extended the scope of the permit so as to enable the bus to be plied along a further stretch of eleven miles to Thandrampet. Being aggrieved by the extensions which the Regional transport. Officer had granted to these two individuals, one Pachia Pillai moved the State Government to revise the orders of the Regional Transport Officer. The government dismissed the revision petitions. Thereupon Pachia Pillai filed two writ petitions Nos. 350 and 351 of 1954 of this Court to quash the orders of the regional Transport Officer and the Government,

(2.) BOTH the petitions were heard by Rajagopala Ayyangar J. Following the decision of a Bench of this Court in W. A. No. 107 of 1955 (Mad) (A), he held that 'the regional Transport Officer had no jurisdiction to extend the scope of the permits in the manner he had done. He therefore set aside the orders of the Regional transport Officer and the Government. Krishnaswami Mudaliar and Kumarswami mudaliar then filed two separate appeals. These came on for hearing before krishnaswami Naidu and Ramaswami JJ. , and they took the view that the decision in W. A. No. 107 of 1955 (Mad) (A), required reconsideration and so referred the appeals to a Full Bench. This is how the matter conies before us.

(3.) THE Motor Vehicles Act of 1939, is a Central Act, Act IV of 1939. It has been amended In important respects by the legislature of this State and to these reference will presently be made. The principal Act set up three authorities to deal with privately owned transport vehicles and stage carriages, terms which include the buses which the public habitually use. These are the Regional Transport authority, the Provincial or as is now called the State Transport Authority and the appellate authority. Each one of them has various powers. Section 48 (d) (ii-a)empowers the Regional Transport Authority to direct that a stage carriage shall be used only on specified routes or in a specified area. Under Section 44 (3) the State Transport Authority is given power to perform the duties of a Regional Transport Authority where there is no such authority and also to co-ordinate and regulate the activities and policies of the Regional Transport authorities in the State. Section 64 empowers the setting up of an authority to hear appeals from the decisions of State Transport authorities and Regional transport authorities. In 1942, Section 133-A was added to the principal Act. The first sub-section thereof empowers State Governments to establish a Motor vehicles department. The third sub-section, among other things, empowers the state Governments to make rules,