Appeal No 258 of 1967
Appeal front the judgment and order dated October 3 1966 of the Madras High Court in Writ Petition No 1159 of 1966
G Ramaswamy R Gopalakrishnan and K K Venugopal for the appellant
MN Ranghachari MK Ramamurthy Shyamala Pappu and Vineet Kumar for respondent No1 The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Sikri J
This appeal by certificate granted by the High Court of Madras is directed against its order dated October 3 1966 15 allowing the writ petition filed under article 226 of the Constitution by Ms Raman  Raman P Ltd Kumbakonam and quashing the order of the Regional Transport Authority Thanjavur dated March 28 1966 whereby the Regional Transport Authority had granted the application for variation of the route Sirkali to Kumbakonam of Ms Sri Ram Vilas Service Ltd Kumbakonam in respect of two stage carriages
On December 9 1965 the application of Ms Sri Ram Vilas Service Ltd Kumbakonam for variation of the route Sirkali to Kumbakonam was notified under section 573 of the 
Ms Raman  Raman P Ltd among others filed objections and after hearing the objections by order dated March 28 1966 the Regional Transport Authority Thanjavur granted the application as according to it the variation applied for was in the interest of the travelling public
The distance covered by the variation extended beyond 24 kilometers
Ms Raman  Raman P Ltd filed the petition under Art 226 of the Constitution to quash the order of the Regional Transport Authority
The question which arises in this appeal is whether the Regional Transport Authority had jurisdiction to vary the route by extending it beyond 24 kms
The High Court following its earlier decision in Ms Swami Motor Transport P Ltd vs Ms Murugan Transports Tiruchirapalli and Others1 held that any variation in excess of 24 kilometers would be ex facie illegal and violation of the intendment of the legislature enacting Act 3 of 1964
 The answer to the question posed above depends upon the true construction of some sections of the 
as amended by the Madras Act III of 1964
The relevant statutory provisions are as follows  481
Subject to the provisions of section 47 a Regional Transport Authority may on an application made to it under section 46 grant a stage carriage pen nit in accordance with the application or with such modification as it deems fit or refuse to grant such a permit Provided that no such permit shall be granted in respect of any route or area not specified in the application
3The Regional Transport Authority if it decides to grant a stage carriage permit may grant the permit for service of stage carriages of a specified description or for one or more particular stage carriages and may subject to any rules that may be made under this Act 1 Writ Petition No 3744 of 1965 judgement dated September 7 1966
16 attach to the permit any one or more of the following conditions namely  ithat the stage carriage or stage carriages shall be used only on a specified route or routes or in a specified area  
xxithat the Regional Transport Authority may after giving notice of not less than one month  avary extend or curtail the route or routes or the area specified in the permit
Provided that in the case of ivariation the termini shall not be altered and the distance covered by variation shall not exceed 24 kms
iiextension of the distance covered by the extension shall not exceed 24 kms
from the termini aa vary any other condition of the permit section 578
An application to vary the conditions of any permit other than a temporary permit by the inclusion of a new route or routes or a new area or by the variation extension or curtailment of the route or routes or area specified in the permit or in the case of a stage carriage permit by increasing the number of services above the specified maximum or in the case of a contract carriage permit by increasing the number of vehicles covered by the permit shall be treated as an application for the grant of a new permit
 Rule 208
a Upon application made in writing by the holder of any permit the Transport Authority may at any time in its discretion vary the permit or any of the conditions thereof subject to the provisions of sub rule b
bIf the application is for the variation of the permit by the inclusion of an additional vehicle or vehicles or if the grant of variation would authorize transport facilities materially different from those authorized by the original permit the Transport Authority shall deal with the application as if it were an application for a permit
Provided that nothing contained in this rule shall prevent the Transport Authority or its Secretary if authorized in this behalf from summarily rejecting an application for the variation of a stage carriage permit 17 so as to provide transport facilities on a road which has been or is certified to be unfit for motor vehicular traffic by an officer not below the rank of Divisional Engineer of the Highways Department
cEvery application for variation of conditions of permit under sub section 8 of section 57 of the Act in respect of a transport vehicle shall be
in form PVA
dThe provisions of rules 163b shall mutatis mutandis apply to application for the variation of a permit or the variation of the counter signature if any thereof by the inclusion of an additional vehicle sanctioned subject to the production of the registration certificate of the additional vehicle
 Section 5 of the Madras Act III of 1964 reads as follows  51
Notwithstanding anything contained in the principal Act the route or routes or the area specified in every stage carriage permit granted before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to be a condition attached to such permit under sub section 3 of section 48 of the principal Act as if this Act were in force on the date of grant of such permit
2Notwithstanding any judgment or order of any Court all proceedings taken for the grant of and all orders passed granting any variation extension or curtailment of the route or routes or the area specified in a stage carriage permit before the commencement of this Act by the State Transport Authority or by a Regional Transport Authority or by an authority or person to whom the powers and functions of the State Transport Authority or a Regional Transport Authority have been delegated or by an authority exercising the powers of appeal or revision against the orders of the State Transport Authority or a Regional Transport Authority shall not be deemed to be invalid merely by reason of the fact that the State Transport Authority or the Regional Transport Authortiy as the case may be had no power to grant such variation extension or curtailment and all such proceedings taken or orders passed shall be deemed always to have been validly taken or passed in accordance with law notwithstanding the distance covered by the variation or extension exceeded twenty four kilometers The learned counsel for the respondent contends that section 4 8 3 xxi as amended operates whether a condition to that effect has been put in a permit or not
But we are unable to read section 48 18 in this sense
Section 48 3 clearly enables the Regional Transport Authorityto attach to the permit any or one of the twenty one conditions
It may in a particular case put one or two or more of the condition or it may put all the conditions
It seems to be common ground that if any of the first twenty conditions in section 483 is not attached to a permit it will not have effect
What makes condition xxi different is hard to appreciate
If condi tion xxi as amended is not attached to a permit it is difficult to see how the Regional Transport Authority can derive any power from the existence of section 48 3 xxi in the Act
Section 5 1 of Act If of 1964 makes the route or routes or the area specified in every stage carriage permit granted before the commencement of the Amending Act a condition attached to such permit tinder subsection 3 of section 48 of the principal Act it does not say that section 483 xxi shall be deemed to be a condition attached to every such permit
The learned counsel for the respondent says that this was theintention of the amendment but if this was so the intention has not been carried out
It was argued before us that the history of legislation supports the interpretation placed by the High Court but in our view the Act as it stands amended by Act III of 1964 is quite clear and it is not necessary to go into the history of the legislation
It seems to us that the High Court erred in holding that section 48 3 xxi of the Act as amended by itself gave power to the Regional Transport Authority to vary the route within certain limits
This power in our View Would be exercisable only if a condition to that effect is put in the permit
In the case of the appellant we saw the permit and what it contained was a condition similar to the condition mentioned in section 48 3 xxi before its amendment by Act If 1 of 1964
Therefore for the purpose of this appeal we must treat section 48 3 xxi as amended as nonexistent
If section 483xxi as amended is treated as non existent then there can be no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that no limitation had been placed on the powers of the Regional Transport Authority in respect of the grant of applications for variation of the route
The order of the Regional Transport Authority cannot therefore be challenged as being beyond its jurisdiction
Another question that was debated before us was whether r 208 of the Madras Motor Vehicles Rules extracted above confer powers on a Transport Authority to vary permits or whether it is merely a procedural rule
It seems to us that as the Act stands at present r 208 does confer power on a transport authority to vary all kinds of permits or conditions attached therein
This power is exercised on an application made in writing by the holder of any permit
19 It follows from the above reasoning that the Regional Trans port Authority had the authority under r 208 to vary the permit and nothing contained in section 48 3 xxi limited its power in respect of the distance covered by the variation in this case
We may mention that it was argued before us that section 578 is not merely procedural but also implies a power to receive applications and vary the conditions in a permit
This may be so but it is not necessary to decide in this case because in Madras r 208 clearly confers power on the Transport Authority to vary the conditions of the permit
In the result the appeal is allowed and the judgment of the High Court set aside
The appellant will have the costs incurred in
this Court


Summary:
The appellant s application for variation of a route extending beyond 24 kilometers was accepted by the Regional Transport Authority
The respondent who had unsuccessfully objected before the Authority filed a writ petition in the High Court to quash the order
The High Court accepted the writ petition holding that any variation in excess of 24 kilometers was ex facie illegal and violation of the intendment of the legislature enacting Madras Act 3 of 1964
which amended the Motor Vehicles Act
In appeals this Court HELD  The Regional Transport Authority had authority under r 208 to vary the permit and nothing contained in section 483xxi of the Motor Vehicles Act limited its power in respect of the distance covered by the variation in this case
19A Section 51 of Madras Act 3 of 1964 made the route or routes or the area specified in every stage carriage permit granted before the commencement of the Amending Act a condition attached to such permit tinder sub section
3 of section 48 of the Principal Act it did not that section 483xxi shall be deemed to be condition attached to every such permit
18c The High Court erred in holding that section 483xxi of the Act is amended
by itself gave power to the Regional Transport Authority to vary the route within certain limits
This power Could be exercised only if a condition to that effect was put in the permit
In the case of the appellant the permit contained a condition similar to the condition mentioned in section 48 3 xxi before its amendment by Act 3 of f 964
Therefore for the purpose of this appeal section 483xxi
is amendment has to be treated is non existent
18E G