JANARDAN PANDA Vs. REGIONAL TRANSPORT AUTHORITY PURI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question that arises for consideration in this writ application is whether while-limiting the grant of stage-carriage permits to any individual to "five" under sub-section (4) of Section 71 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act"), the temporary permits granted to such individual under Section 87 of the Act can also be taken into account.

(2.) The Transport Commissioner-cum-Chairman, State Transport Authority, has issued a Circular to all the Regional Transport Officers on 22-8-1991, annexed as Annexure-1, indicating therein the procedure to be adopted while applications for stage-carriage permits are disposed of and it has been further indicated therein that when an applicant approaches the registering authority for a letter before applying for a temporary permit to the S.T.A., the registering authority should issue the letter indicating the number of permits, temporary or permanent, held by him in order to compute the total number of stage-carriage permits held by him in his name or in the name of other persons. It is this direction from the Transport Commissioner under Annexure-1 which is being challenged by the petitioner who is a fleet owner of stage-carriages. Though in the writ application, the constitutional validity of sub-sections (4) and (5) of Section 71 of the Act had been challenged, but Mr. Das appearing for the petitioner at the time of hearing did not press the said contention and limited his arguments on the question as already posed.

(3.) The stand of the Department in its return filed to this Court as well as in the arguments advanced by the learned Standing Counsel is that sub-section (4) of Section 71 puts an embargo on the power of the R.T.A. to grant more than five stage-carriage permits to any individual, and on a literal interpretation to the aforesaid provision being given, it is susceptible of the only conclusion that an individual should not have more than five stage-carriage permits, whether permanent or temporary and, therefore, there is no infirmity with the Circular issued by the Transport Commissioner under Annexure- 1. According to the learned Standing Counsel, the expression "permit" has been defined in Section 2(31) to mean, "a permit issued by a State or Regional Transport Authority" and the expression "stage-carriage" has been defined in Section 2(4) to mean, "a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to carry more than 6 passengers excluding the Driver for hire or reward at separate fares paid by or for individual passengers either for the whole journey or for stages of the journey". In this view of the matter, grant of a temporary permit in respect of a stage-carriage also is a stage-carriage permit and the same has to be computed while determining the ceiling under sub-section (4) of Section 71 and there is no rhyme or reason to exclude the temporary permits granted under Section 87 from the purview of computation.