Case: Sher Singh and Others Vs. Union of India and Others

Re: S.L.P. No. 6605/83:Petitioner Sher Singh is the holder of a stage carriage permit on Behror-Rewari via Barrod, Shahjahanpur inter-State route. A portion of the route from Bahror to National Highway No. 8 via Barrod and Shahjahanpur 28 k.ms. in length passes through Rajasthan State and the rest of the portion of the route 22 K .ms. in length lies in Haryana State. It is thus an inter-State route. Petitioner holds 12 permits, for operating on the aforementioned route. Of the 12 permits, the period prescribed under 8 permits expired and the petitioner applied for the renewal of the permits under Sec. 58 of the Act. Regional Transport Authority granted renewal of the permits upto and inclusive of January 20, 1981. The petitioner again applied for renewal of the permits on December 29, 1980. The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation, fifth respondent (`Corporation for short) made an application to the Regional Transport Authority on April 20, 1981 for stage carriage permit on the aforementioned route. This application was as usual advertised. The application of the petitioner for the renewal of his permits accordingly was taken up for consideration on April 30, 1981. Pending the consideration of the application for renewal of permits, petitioner was granted temporary permits under Sec. 62 for a period of four months commencing from the date of the expiry of the earlier permit. The temporary permits were thus to expire on May 20, 1981. And these temporary permits were further renewed for a period of 4 months Thereafter the application of the petitioner for renewal of his permits and the application for stage carriage permit made by the Corporation were taken up for consideration. An objection was raised by the Corporation that as the route in question is an inter-State route, it is entitled to permit in preference to the petitioner in view of the provision contained in Sec. 47 (I- H) of the Act. On the other hand, it was contended on behalf of the petitioner that in view of the provision contained in Sec. 58, the petitioner is entitled to renewal of his permits in preference to the Corporation, which has made an application for a fresh permit. This contention found favour with the Regional Transport Authority an d the renewal of permits was refused to the petitioner and the permits were granted to the Corporation. This decision was questioned in a writ petition filed by the present petitioner in which the only contention raised was that the preference was ac corded to the Corporation for grant of a permit under Sec. 47 (I-H) of the Act which is constitutionally invalid, and once no such preference could be granted, the preference in favour of a renewal of permit under Sec. 58 should have a precedence and the renewal ought to have been granted.It was contended before the learned Single Judge of the High Court that Sec. 47 (1-H) is violative both of Art. 14 and Art. 19 (1) (g) and is thus constitutionally invalid. That was the only contention canvassed before the learned Single Judge which did not find favour with him as well as the Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court. Hence the petitioner filed this petition for special leave. A notice was ordered to be issued to the respondent and it was directed that the petition be finally disposed of at this stage as the only question raised is one of law and no investigation of facts isbrief reference to the relevant provisions of the Act may help us in demarcating the contours of controversy with precision. Chapter IV of the Act contains provisions for control of transport vehicles. For regulating the transport business, a scheme for granting different types of permits has been statutorily prescribed. There are various kinds of permits contemplated by the Act such as stage carriage permit, contract carriage permit, all India tourist permit, special permit, permits for transport of goods etc. Various authorities have been constituted under the Act for the purpose of implementing the Act. Power has been conferred upon specific authorities for granting different kinds of permits. Sec. 47 prescribes procedure which the Regional Transport Authority has to follow while examining and deciding an application for stage carriage permit. Sec. 47 was specifically amended by Act 47 of 1978 which came into force on January 16, 1979 By the Amending Act, sub-secs (1-A) to (1-H) were added to Sec. 47. The focus of controversy is on subsec. (1-H). Sub-sec. (1-H) reads asNotwithstanding anything contained in this section, an application for stage carriage permit from a State Transport undertaking for operating in any inter-State route shall be given preference over all other applications:Provided that the authority shall not grant a permit under this sub-section unless it is satisfied that the State transport undertaking would be able to operate in the inter-State route without detriment to its responsibility for providing efficient and adequate road transport service in any notified area or notified route as is referred to in sub-section (3) of Section 68-D where the undertaking operates the service.Explanation:-For the purposes of this sub-section, inter-State route means any route lying contiguously in two or more States..

Court's reasoning:
In this group of petitions for special leave, it was contended before the High Court that as Pallavan Transport Corporation Ltd., the first respondent, did not make provision for night halt cleaners, the application for permits made by them were liable to be screened. The High Court declined to examine this contention on t he short ground that this contention was not raised before the State Transport Appellate Tribunal. For the same reason, we could as well have declined to examine this contention. However, it may as well be pointed out that even if the contention is to be examined on merits, there is no substance in it. The State of Tamil Nadu has framed what are styled as Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules. Rule 155-A provides for a marking system under different heads to rival claimants for permit to objectively assess who amongst them is the best to whom permit should be granted. Before proceeding to assign marks under different heads, the Transport Authority has to screen applications so as to weed out those unsuitable on one or the other ground mentioned in the rule. One such disqualification is the failure to provide for night halt cleaners. It was urged that after the Transport Authority made the enquiry from the first respondent-Corporation whether it has provision for night halt cleaners, without waiting for the clarification, the Transport Authority proceeded to dispose of the application. It was next pointed out that Rule 155-A (3) (d) provides that 5 marks shall be awarded to the applicant falling within the proviso to cl. (c) of Sec. 62 of the Act which means and implies a State Transport Undertaking. The grievance is that such adhoc assignment of marks and failure to weed out the application on the ground of disqualification for not providing night halt cleaners has vitiated the decision of the Transport Authority. The validity of Rule 155-A and its various sub clauses came up for consideration of this Court in D.R. Venkachalam &Ors. vs. Dy. Transport Commissioner &Ors.(1) This Court repelled the challenge especially to the provision for assigning 5 marks to a State Transport Undertaking observing asState enterprise, in a truly Welfare State, is charged with a social consciousness and responsibility for its citizens, an attention to serve them and a willingness to embark on public utility undertakings better to fulfil peoples demands. The public sector enterprises are expected to be model employers and mod el servants planning their budgets, subjecting themselves to public audit and criticism and inquest by legislative committees and the Houses of the legislature. Profits are their concern but, more importantly, public weal is their commitment. Such is the philosophy of the State sector in our socialistic pattern ofthe question of assignment of 5 marks to State Transport Undertaking this Court held that this is not an arbitrary stroke of favouritism because there are many promotional factors bearing on the interest of the travelling public which a State enterprise qua State enterprise will, but a private enterprise qua private enterprise will not, take care of. After al l, private enterprise has its primary motivation in profit. The Court further observed that the superiority in many respects of State Transport Undertakings, in the legislative judgment, has led to r. 155-A. The Court ultimately held that the assignment of marks under r. 155-A is geared to public interest, which is the desideratum of s. 47 (1) of the Act. Once the assignment of 5 marks to State Transport Authority Undertaking is held to be valid, the Transport Authority was perfectly justified in refusing renewal of permits to the petitioners in comparison to the State Transport Undertaking. As for failure to explain absence of night halt cleaners, in the absence of concerte evidence, no inference can be drawn. This was the only additional contention in this group of petitions and we find no substance in it. These are all the contentions in this group of petitions and as we find no substance in any of them, all the petitions are dismissed with no order as to costs.