Bheem Singh Bhati vs State of M.P. and Others

This petition has been filed against the order Annexure P/1 dated 10/10/2013. The petitioner was granted a temporary permit for the route Mandsaur to Indore, one daily trip. The temporary permit is valid upto 31st October, 2013. The respondent No. 3 objected in regard to grant of temporary permit to the petitioner. That was rejected by the RTA. Thereafter a revision was filed before the STAT by the respondent No. 3 questioning the order passed by the RTA. The STAT allowed the revision on the ground that the petitioner did not mention in column No. 4 of the application submitted by the petitioner the necessity for grant of temporary permit. The petitioner in the application simply mentioned the number of the vehicle. The RTA mentioned necessity of grant of temporary permit in the order granting temporary permit. A Full Bench of Kerala High Court in the case of E.I. Narayanan and Others Vs. The Regional Transport Authority, Trichur and Others, has held that an application could not be rejected merely on the ground that it does not contain particulars of the vehicle. The findings of the Full Bench are as under:-

An application for the grant of a stage carriage permit cannot be treated as invalid merely on the ground that it does not contain particulars of the vehicle proposed to be used for the service nor can the applicant be disqualified or excluded from consideration on the said ground. If all other qualifications are equal as between two applicants, one of whom had furnished in his application the particulars of his vehicle and the other had furnished such particulars only at a later stage before the matter was taken up for consideration by the Regional/State Transport Authority and the vehicle offered by the latter is found to be of a later model and better quality (providing better comforts for the passengers) than the vehicle offered by the former, the Regional/State Transport Authority will be perfectly justified in taking the view that it will be in the public interest to grant the permit to the applicant who has offered the better vehicle. However, if in such a case the vehicles offered by both the applicants are found to be substantially of the same type, quality, model etc. and if in respect of other matters both the applicants are equally qualified it will be open to the Regional/State Transport Authority in its discretion to prefer for the grant the applicant who had furnished the particulars of his vehicle in the application itself treating the said circumstance as a ground for tilting the balance as between the two persons whose qualifications are equal in all other respects. Ikram Khan Vs. The State Transport Appellate Tribunal and Others, , Foll.; Vypeen Transport Corporation (P) Ltd. and Others Vs. State Transport Appellate Tribunal, Trichur and Others, , Overruled.

In the present case, subsequently the RTA mentioned the reasons in regard to grant of temporary permit in favour of the petitioner. The permit is valid upto 31st October, 2013. In this view of the matter, in our opinion, setting aside the grant of temporary permit by the STAT is contrary to law. Consequently, the petition is allowed. The impugned order Annexure P/1 dated 10/10/2013 is hereby quashed. No order as to costs.