PUBLIC TRANSPORT CO Vs. STATE TRANSPORT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution is directed against two orders, one passed by the Regional Transport Authority Jabalpur (respondent 2) on 20th August 1957 rejecting the petitioner's application for a stage carriage permit for the Chhindwara-Balaghat Via Seoni route (hereinafter called the route)for want of scope and the other passed in appeal by the State Transport Appellate authority (respondent 1) on 26th March 1960 affirming the earlier order.

(2.) THE petitioner, which is an association of persons providing transport facilities by road, applied as usual for a stage carriage permit for the route. The application was duly published. On 20th August 1957, the respondent 2 passed the following order:

(3.) ALTHOUGH several grounds were raised in support of the petition, only two of them have been pressed before us. The first is that the respondent 1 failed to consider the question of scope with reference to a direct service between the two termini, Chhindwara and Balaghat, and misdirected itself in taking into account the want of scope over parts of the route. The second is that this principle, which was not applied by the respondents 1 and 2 in other cases, was, contrary to the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution, employed for the purpose of rejecting the petitioner's application.