Case: S.K. Bhatia and Others Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others

In these writ petitions, the vires of condition No. 18 attached to the permits issued by the respective Regional Transport Authorities of the State of Uttar Pradesh:o the petitioners for plying contract carriages known as mini buses is in question. Mini bus is defined by sec. 2 (d) of the U.P. Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Act, 1976 as meaning "an omnibus which is constructed or adapted to carry not more than 35 persons excluding the driver". Section 51 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act enables the Regional Transport Authority granting a contract carriage permit to attach in the permit any one or more of the conditions enumerated in that provision. Item (x) of Section 51 (2) reads "any other condition which may be prescribed". Condition No. 18 is a condition which is prescribed and attached in every permit for plying a mini bus. The condition in its original form stood thus:"The motor vehicle covered by the permit shall not be more than four years old counted from the date of registration to any time during the validity of the permit."The period of four years originally stipulated was increased to "seven" on September 28, 1978 and again raised to "nine" on December 21, 1981. The vires of the condition was questioned earlier by some owners of mini buses on the ground that it was ultra vires the power under sec. 51 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act. But, in Subhash Chandra And ors v. State of U.P. and ors.(1) this Court held that the condition was within the limits of the power conferred by sec. 51 (2) tracing its source to Item (X) of sec. 51 (2). The Court observed:Section 51 (2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 is geared to public safety, not private profit and casts a solemn duty not to be deterred by any pressure except the pressure of social justice to Indian lives moving in buses, walking on roads or even standing on margins ......................................... ........ ..........""We are clear that a later model is a better safeguard and, more relevantly to the point, the year of the make and the particulars of the model are part of the description".

Reasoning: The vires of Condition No. 18 is once again challenged in these writ petitions. The grounds of challenge, however, are most insubstantial. It was said that there was no such condition in the case of omnibuses and therefore, there was an infringement of Art . 14 of the Constitution. It is incorrect to say that there is no such condition in the case of omnibuses. In paragraph 5 of the counter-affidavit filed in a Writ Petition Nos. 18-21 of 1981, it is stated that in the case of omnibuses, there is a condition that the vehicle should be replaced on the expiry of five years from the date of registration. Further omnibuses and mini buses constitute different classes and are not comparable. Another submission was that condition No. 18 is impossible of fulfillment since one of the manufacturers of chassis of mini buses (Telco) is no longer manufacturing such chassis. This is denied in the counter-affidavit and we presume there are other manufacturers in the country, who make or produce the required chassis. In any case, that is a situation which can be remedied by the transport authorities. The petitioners can always pursue the remedies given to them under the Motor Vehicles Act by way of appeal and revision. We fail to see any infringement of any constitutional right. Another submission was that the authority competent to impose the condition, was not the Regional Transport Authority, but the competent authority under sec 4 of the Utter Pradesh Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Act. Vie have already referred to Subhash Chanders case where it has been held that the source of a power for imposing condition No 18 is sec. 51 (2) (x) of the Motor Vehicles Act. Under sec. 51 (2) (x), the authority empowered to impose the condition is the Regional Transport Authority. Section 4 of the Uttar Pradesh Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Act deals with the authorisation of use of private mini buses as stage carriages within specified limits covered by an approved scheme and has nothing whatever to do with the imposition of conditions on mini buses playing as contract carriages. It was suggested that the real object of Condition No. 13 is not the safety of the passengers as thought in Subhash Chanders case, but to eliminate mini buses from the field. There is no basis at all for this submission. As we said, there is no substance in any one of these submissions advanced by the petitioners.