IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF APRIL TWO THOUSAND AND FIVE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA WRIT PETITION NO : 977 of 1998 Between: S.V.Rama Reddy, S/o. Venkata reddy, R/o. Engineer Street, Anaparthi , East Godavari District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Deputy Transport Commissioner and Secretary, Kakinada, East Godavari District. 2 Transport Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 3 Joint Transport Commissioner & Secretary, State Transport Authority, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENT(S) Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Affidavit filed herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an appropriate Writ, order or direction, preferably one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, declaring the action of the 1st respondent in not permitting the petitioner to alter the seating capacity of the vehicl of the petitioner bearing chassis No.385 003 LSQ 950542 and Engine No. 483 DL 41 LSQ 821482 as a Motor Cab as illegal, arbitrary, contrary to law and further direct the 1st respondent to permit the petitioner to operate the said Vehicle as a Motor Cab with a seating capacity of '7' in all by assigning Registration Mark while directing the 3rd respondent herein to issue an All India Tourist Permit to the said Vehicle; and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.E.MARUTHI RAJA Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR TRANSPORT The Court made the following : ORDER: The present writ petition is filed questioning the action of the 1st respondent in not permitting the petitioner bearing chassis No.385 003 LSQ 950542 and Engine No. 483 DL 41 LSQ 821482 as a Motor Cab. It is submitted by the learned Government Pleader for Transport and admitted to by the learned counsel for the petitioner that the subject matter of this writ petition is squarely covered by a Division Bench judgment of this Court in O. Gangadhar v. Transport Commissioner, A.P., wherein it was held as follows: “….As could be seen from the scheme of the Act and the Rules made thereunder in a given case, the Transport Authorities while granting stage carriage or contract carriage permits, keeping in view the route of journey viz., hill stations, fair weather routes etc., a condition may be imposed in the permit to carry certain maximum number of passengers. Merely because the form of permit is provided with a column of ‘number of passengers seats’, it cannot be said that the owners of the vehicles have a right to get the alteration of seating capacity by removing some seats….” Following the above judgment, this writ petition is also dismissed for the same and similar reasons. No costs. ______________ N.V. RAMANA, J Date: 20-04-2005 ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1 Deputy Transport Commissioner and Secretary, Kakinada, East Godavari District. 2 Transport Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 3 Joint Transport Commissioner & Secretary, State Transport Authority, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad. 4 2 CD copies 5. 2 CCs to Government Pleader for Transport High Court of A.P. Buildings, Hyderabad (OUT) Form-NIC-OGS/WP{SAM}