HARCHARANLAL GUPTA Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY GWALIOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner was holder of permit No. 29 of 1972 for the route Guna-Sironj. The permit was valid up to 27th May 1975. The petitioner applied for renewal of his permit on 26th August 1574. This application was published in the Gazette dated 18th Oct. , 1974. The Gazette publication contained a footnote inviting fresh applications for the route within 30 days. Respondents 3 and 4 made applications for the grant of permit on the said route on 9th and 12th Nov. , 1974 respectively. Their applications were published in the Gazette in March 1975 inviting objections within 30 days. The petitioner then filed this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in April 1975. The petitioner's contention in this petition is that the Regional Transport Authority should not have invited applications for fresh permit and that the Authority should be restrained from considering the applications of respondents 3 and 4 along with the application of the petitioner.

(2.) LEARNED counsel for the petitioner has relied on the case of Bipatlal v. R. T. Authority, Jabalpur, 1073 MPLJ 451 : (AIR 1973 Madh Pra 209) (FB) in support of the contention that after publication of the petitioner's application for renewal, no applications should have been invited by the R. T. A. In our opinion, the Full Bench case is distinguishable on facts and this petition must be dismissed.

(3.) IT will be seen that the petitioner's permit was expiring on 27th May 1975. An application for renewal has to be made under Section 58 (2) of the Motor vehicles Act not less than 120 days before the date of its expiry. The idea behind this provision is that the application for renewal would be disposed of normally within 120 days and the renewed permit would be effective from the date of the expiry of the original permit. In this context, reference is also necessary to Section 57 (2) of the Act. Under this section, an application for a stage carriage permit has to be made not less than six weeks before the date on which it Is desired that the permit shall take effect. The parties interested to ply stage carriages on a route can easily know the date of expiry of any permit covering the route. They can apply for fresh permit to be effective from that date within the period allowed under Section 57 (2 ). During the period the existing permit is in operation, a vacancy does not occur in lieu thereof. The question that arises in such cases before the Regional Transport AUthority is either to renew the existing permit from the date of its expiry or to grant a new permit from that date. By considering the application for renewal with other applications, public interest is better served because the Regional Transport authority has a more wide range of selection than when he considers the application for renewal alone. The person holding the permit and the persons interested in getting new permit on the route have to apply for renewal and fresh grant of permit within the period of limitation allowed by Sections 58 (2)and 57 (2) so that their applications may be considered and disposed of before the date of expiry of the permit. In our opinion, even after an application for renewal is published, fresh applications for permit can be entertained and can be considered along with the application for renewal, provided it is possible to finally dispose of the application for renewal and the applications for fresh permit before the date of expiry of the permit.