CHANDRA KISHORE Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two connected petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution are directed against certain Government notifications issued under Chapter IV-A of the Motor Vehicles Act (hereafter referred to as the Act). In Civil Miscellaneous Writ No. 2022 of 1959 there are 12 petitioners. In Civil Miscellaneous Writ No. 1013 of 1960 Beni Prasad is the sole petitioner.

(2.) It will be sufficient to refer to the facts of Writ No. 2022 of 1959 in detail. Petitioners Nos. 1 to 6 plied stage carriages, on Mathura-Alwar route; while petitioners Nos. 7 to 12 plied their stage carriages on Mathura-Kama-Kosi route. In 1958 there was a proposal to nationalise Mathura-Govardhan-Barsana route and Mathura-Radha Kund-Chhatta - route in Agra Region. A notification under Section 68-C of the Act was, therefore, issued on 31-12-1958. The petitioners filed objections against the draft scheme. The objections were disposed of by the Joint Legal Remembrancer to U. P. Government; objections were overruled; and the draft scheme was published in the U. P. Gazette dated 8-8-1959. As a consequence of the final scheme introduced by the notification published under Section 68-D of the Act, buses are being plied on behalf of the State within the route covered by the petitioners' permits. The petitioners' permits covered Mathura-Govardhan route. The respondents have also been operating on this route. The petitioners have prayed that the two notifications issued under Sections 68-C and 68-D of the Act should be quashed. It is further prayed that the respondents be prohibited from plying Government buses on the route covered by the petitioners' permits.

(3.) An Assistant in the Transport Department of the U. P. Civil Secretariat has filed a counter-affidavit on behalf of the respondents. One Brahma Dutt has filed an affidavit on behalf of the 12 petitioners.