1960 (4) TMI 62
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.... State transport undertaking in the Anekal area. The Chief Minister of the Mysore State gave the operators affected by the scheme an opportunity of making oral representations and on perusing the written objections and considering the oral representations, approved the scheme as framed by the 2nd respondent. On April 23, 1959, the scheme was published in the Mysore State Government gazette' On June 23, 1959, renewal applications submitted by petitioners 1 to 3 for permits to ply Stage carriages on certain routes covered by the scheme were rejected by the Transport Authority and the 2nd respondent was given permanent permits operative as from June 24, 1959, for plying buses on those routes. In Writ Petition No. 463 of 1959 challenging the validity of the permanent permits granted to the 2nd respondent, the High Court of Mysore held that the issue of permits to the 2nd respondent before the expiry of six weeks from the date Of the application was illegal. To petitioners 1 to 3 and certain other operators renewal permits operative till March 31, 1961, were thereafter issued by the third respondent. The 2nd respondent applied for fresh permits in pursuance of the scheme approved on....
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....in which the State transport undertaking will introduce its services to the exclusion of private operators " are those set out in statement 1 appended to the scheme. Statement 1 sets out the description of fourteen routes with their intermediate points, route length, number of buses to be operated and the maximum number of trips to be performed on each route. By column 4 " the number of existing stage carriages on each route with the number of trips and the names of their opera- tors " are described " as in statement 2 appended ". Statement 2 sets out the names and places of business of fifty-six operators together with the routes operated and the numbers of the stage carriages and trips made by those operators. In the Anekal area, there are thirty-one routes, which are served by stage carriages operated by private operators, and by the approval of the scheme, only fourteen of those routes are covered by the scheme' Section 68C, in so far as it is material, provides that a State transport undertaking, if it is of opinion that it is necessary in the public interest that road transport services in relation to any area or route or portion thereof should be run and operated by itse....
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....e must therefore be regarded as one for the fourteen notified routes and not in relation to the area described in column 1. Counsel for the petitioners submitted that an order passed on October 22, 1959, by the 3rd respondent the Regional Transport Authority-rejecting applications for permits for one of the fourteen routes to an applicant, indicated that in the opinion of the third, respondent, the scheme related to a notified area and not to notified routes. The order states that. " an approved scheme for the exclusive operation in the notified area of Bangalore District " by the second respondent " has come into existence after the notification of the route Bangalore to Nallur, and the major, portion of the route applied for lie in the notified area and as such it was not desirable, to grant any permit to operators to pass through notified area in the intraState route." The third respondent may have in considering the application assumed that the scheme related to a notified area, but the true interpretation of the scheme cannot be adjudged in the light of that assumption. The other document relied upon is a statement of objections filed by the second respondent on October 24, 1....
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....xecutive power of the Union and of each State as extending to the carrying on of any trade or business. That power of the Union is subject in so, far as the trade or business is not one in respect of which Parliament may make laws, to legislation by the State and the power of each State, in so far as the trade or business is not one with respect to which the State Legislature may make laws, is subject to legislation by Parliament. Like ordinary citizens, the Union and the State Governments may carry on any trade or business subject to restrictions which may be imposed by the Legislatures competent to legislate in respect of the particular trade or business. Under Article 19(6) of the Constitution as amended by the First Amendment Act, 1951, nothing in sub-cl. (g) of cl. (1) of Art. 19 is to affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it related to, or prevent the State from making any law relating to the carrying on by the State or by a Corporation owned or controlled by the State of any industry or business, whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise. The State may therefore carry on any trade or business, and legislation relating to the carr....
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....cheme, is entitled, consistently with the scheme, to exclusive right to, carry on motor transport business. The Regional Transport Authority is, bound to grant permit for the routes covered by the,, scheme to the State transport undertaking if that authority applies for the same and the Regional Transport Authority is also bound in giving effect to the approved scheme, to modify the terms of existing permits and to refuse to entertain applications for renewal of permits of private operators. Chapter IVA is not merely regulatory of the procedure for carrying on business of road transport by the State; it enables the State transport undertaking, subject to the provisions of the scheme, to exclude private operators and to acquire a monopoly, partial or complete, in carrying on transport business, in a notified area or on notified routes. The authority of the Parliament to enact laws granting monopolies to the State Government to conduct the business of road transport is not open to serious challenge. Entry No. 21 of List III of the Seventh Schedule authorises the Union Parliament and the State Legislatures concurrently to enact laws in respect of commercial and industrial monopolies,....
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....ression " the State " as defined in Art. 12 is inclusive of the Government and Parliament of India and the Government and the Legislature of each of the States. Under entry No. 21 of the Concurrent List, the Parliament being competent to legislate for creating, commercial or trading monopolies, there is, nothing in the Constitution which deprives it of the power to create a commercial or trading monopoly in the Constituent States. Article 19(6) is a mere saving provision: its function is not to create a power but to, immunise from attack the exercise of legislative power falling within its ambit. The right of the State to carry on trade or business to the exclusion of others does not &rise by virtue of Art. 19(6). The right of the State to carry on trade or business is recognised by Art. 298; authority to exclude competitors in the field of such trade or business is conferred on the State by entrusting power to enact laws under entry 21 of List III of the Seventh Schedule,, and the exercise of that power in the context of fundamental rights is secured from attack by Art. 19(6), In any event, the expression " law " as, defined in Art. 13(3)(a) includes any ordinance, order, bye-law,....