DABAL SINGH NEGI Vs. STATE TRANSPORT APPELLATE TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition has been argued at considerable length and several contentions have been advanced before us but we find no force in them We are not prepared to accept the statement that no notice of the date on which the petitioner's application for renewal was to be considered was given In any case it is admitted that the petitioner was present when the application was considered by the Regional Transport Authority. Therefore, even if no notice had been given, he has not suffered Then he contends that he had not enough time or opportunity for meeting the charge that there were 11 convictions and prosecutions against him but he has not denied that there were 11 convictions and prosecutions against him He has also not contended that the alleged convictions and prosecutions did not exist

(2.) HE has not told us what explanation he could possibly offer in respect of the convictions It was open to the Regional Transport Authority to cancel or suspend the permit, under Section 60 before its expiry on the ground of convictions but it does not follow that it could not use the convictions for refusing renewal It was open to it to use the fact of the convictions for refusing renewal even though it had not taken any steps for cancellation or suspension of the permit under Section 60. The procedure to be followed for suspending or cancelling a licence is not required to be followed for refusing to renew a licence. The petitioner was given a temporary permit in August 1964 But the Regional Transport Authority had not decided till then not to renew the permit; therefore, the grant of the temporary permit did not mean that the application for renewal was not to be rejected.

(3.) THE words "operation by the applicant of other transport services" include the offences committed previously also. Merely because the permit was renewed even after those convictions it does not mean that those convictions were wiped off. It was open to the Regional Transport Authority to take into consideration the cumulative effect of all convictions and prosecutions. It might not have thought that the convictions that had already been recorded before the present permit was granted were sufficient for not granting it, but when some more convictions and prosecutions were added it could come to a different conclusion. THEn it was contended that some of the convictions are compounded; under the Code of Criminal Procedure an order of acquittal may have to be passed on composition but it is quite different from saying that the offence was never committed. When the offences were compounded it means that they were committed and this fact that they were committed could be taken into consideration.