MADHYA PRADESH STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION JABALPUR Vs. STATE TRANSPORT APPELLATE AUTHORITY MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner Madhya Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation by this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution calls into question an order of the state Transport Appellate Authority dated 23rd February 1972 passed in Appeal no. 25 of 1971.

(2.) THE facts are that the Bundelkhand Motor Transport Company, hereinafter referred to as the Company held a stage carriage permit for the route Chhatarpur to Damoh. This route is an inter-regional route 112 Kilometres of which lie in Rewa region and 48 Kilometres in Jabalpur region. The permit held by the Company was granted by the Regional Transport Authority, Rewa, and was countersigned by the regional Transport Authority, Jabalpur. The Company applied for extension of its permit from Damoh to Jabalpur via Tendukheda and Patan. The distance between damoh to Jabalpur is 108 kilometres and this route lies wholly in Jabalpur region. The application for extension was made by the Company to the Regional Transport authority, Rewa which had granted the original permit. The Regional Transport authority, Rewa, by its order passed on 10th March 1970 allowed the application for extension subject to the grant of countersignature by the Regional Transport authority, Jabalpur. Then the Company applied for countersignature to the regional Transport Authority, Jabalpur, which rejected the application by its order dated 14th December 1970 on the ground that a portion of the route for which extension was sought was a route of complete exclusion under Nationalisation scheme No. 9 made under Chapter IV-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The company then preferred an appeal to the State Transport Appellate Authority which allowed the appeal by its order dated 23rd February 1972 on tine finding that the part of the route which was covered by the scheme was not a route of complete exclusion and, therefore, extension could not be refused on the ground on which it was refused by the Regional Transport Authority. The Appellate authority also directed the Regional Transport Authority to countersign the permit. It is this order of the Appellate Authority which is under challenge in this petition.

(3.) THE learned counsel for the petitioner Corporation has not challenged the order of the Appellate Authority on the ground that the extension of the Company's permit will contravene any scheme of nationalisation published under Chapter IVA. The grounds of challenge to the impugned order before us are that the scope for extension was not determined by the Transport Authorities, that the application for extension could not be made to the Regional Transport Authority Rewa, that the order of the Regional Transport Authority, Jabalpur, was not open to appeal, and that the grant of extension of 108 kilometres not being a little change in the original permit the Authorities concerned had no power to grant the extension of such magnitude.