LAB SINGH Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this and in 105 other writ petitions the same questions are involved, and this judgment would govern all these writ petitions.

(2.) On December 8, 1986 an advertisement was published for the issue of permits for plying buses in and around Calcutta. This advertisement invited all persons having in their possession buses, and also those who could produce new buses for the purposes of stage carriage permits in different routes in and around Calcutta region, to apply to the appropriate authority for permission to ply the buses in these routes. The petitioner claims to have invested about Rs. 70,000 in a bus and was granted permit for the route No. 12C, i.e., the route lying between Howrah and Thakurpukur. On production of the petitioner's bus, he was granted a permit effective up to February 28, 1967. This permit was subsequently extended till April 28, 1967 and thereafter till June 30, 1967.

(3.) The petitioner's case is that after the General Election held in 1967, the United Front Government came to power, and wanted to cancel the permits issued by the previous Government. It is alleged that on April 28, 1967, a new Transport Policy was published in a Press Note, in which it was stated that new routes needed to be opened and the routes from which the State Transport Corporation would withdraw, should be made over to the private sector. It was further stated that the State Transport Corporation would withdraw from routes Nos. 1, 12C, 30B, 32 and 36B. On these routes, it was claimed, about 200 buses could be accommodated and all-told 500 private buses would be introduced on various routes in the Calcutta region. In this Press Note it was further stated that applicants for permits were selected by the previous Chief Minister and the previous Transport Minister, under circumstances which suggested that they should form the subject matter of a thorough investigation The new Government, it was further stated, had decided that in issuing 500 stage carriage permits the procedure prescribed by the ordinary law would be adopted and the permits would be issued by the Regional Transport Authority, Calcutta. It was further stated that the existing orders under the Defence of India Rules in respect of 311 private buses would be kept alive in the interest of the travelling public. The petitioner claims that unless the permit granted to him was validated for a period of five years as provided in Section 58 of the Motor Vehicles Act. 1939, he would suffer irreparable loss and injury and that he was given to understand that his permit would be validated upto June 30, 1967. Thereafter a notice appeared in the Notice Board of the Regional Transport Authority, Calcutta in which it was stated that the owners of vehicles holding temporary permits should contact the Assistant Regional Transport Officer for ascertaining whether their permits were to be extended for two months more. Thereafter a notice was put up on the Notice Board in which only 147 of the permit-holders were allowed extension, and in respect of 150 other permit-holders, the extension was not granted. The petitioner is one of the permit-holders to whom the extension was not granted. The petitioner thereafter saw the Transport Minister and the Transport Commissioner for validating his permit for a period of five years, but he was told that the permit-holders had been screened, and those who actively supported the Congress Party in the last General Election would not be allowed any further extension of permits. It is in these circumstances that the petitioner moved a writ petition and obtained a rule nisi. The petitioner has asked for a writ of mandamus directing the respondent No. 1 (State of West Bengal) to withdraw the order whereby the extension was granted to 147 permit-holders and refused to 150 permit-holders and also for an order directing the respondents to cancel or rescind the said order and to treat the permit issued to the petitioner to be valid for a period of five years under Section 58 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1939.