TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1963 (2) TMI 59
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....e Tanjore-Mannargudi via Vaduvoor. 11 persons applied for the permit. The Regional Transport Authority, adopting the marking system prescribed in' G.O. Ms. No. 1298 (Home) dated April 28,1956, awarded marks to different applicants : the appellant of the highest number of Marks, viz., 7, and the first respondent got only 4 1/4 marks, with the result the appellant was preferred to the respondent and a permit was issued to him. It is not necessary to notice the marks secured by the other applicants before the Regional Transport Authority, for they are not before us. Total of the said marks secured by each of the said two parties was arrived at by gadding the marks given under the following heads: Viable Unit Work shop Residence- Experience Special circumstances Total 1 2 3 4 5 K.M.S 4 1 1 1/2 1/4 7 S.R.V.S 1 1 1 1 1/4 4 It would be seen from the said table of marks that if the 4 marks secured by the appellant under the first column "Viable Unit" were excluded from his total, he would have got only a total of 3 marks under the remaining heads and the first respondent wo....
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.... take into consideration the admitted fact, namely, the existence of a workshop at Mannargudi and therefore, it amounted to a breach of s. 47 (1) (a) and (c) of the Motor Vehicles Act. The same idea was expressed by the learned judge in a different way thus: It............ in regard to residential qualification, it (the Appellate Tribunal) declined to consider whether the office workshop at Mannargudi are sufficient to entitle the petitioner to any marks under head for the mere reason that it was a branch of a branch office." He held that the said refusal was an error apparent on the face of the record; and he accordingly quashed the order and at the same time indicated that the result 'was that the State Transport Appellate Tribunal would have to dispose of the appeal afresh. The Letters Patent appeal filed by the appellant was heard by a division Bench consisting of Anantanarayanan and Venkatadri, jj. The learned judges dismissed the appeal and the reason of their decision is found in the following remarks "In essence, the judgment really proceeds on the basis that with regard to the claim of the respondent to some valuation under Col. 3, arising f....
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....e Tribunal can decide, on the material placed before it, whether public interest would be better served if the permit was given to the appellant or the first respondent within the meaning of s. 47 of the said Act. The Government, in exercise its powers under s. 43 of the said Act, gave administrative directions embodying some principles for enabling the Tribunal to come to a conclusion on the said point. The Tribunal had jurisdiction to decide the said question on the basis of the principles so laid down or dehors them. In either view, it only decides the said question. The first respondent raised before the Tribunal that public interest would be better served if a permit was issued to it as it had a well equipped branch office at Mannargudi. The said question was relevant. in an inquiry under s. 47 of the said Act, whether the Tribunal followed the instructions given by the Government or ignored them. In coming to a conclusion on the said question, the Tribunal made a clear error of law inasmuch as it held that in the case of the first respondent, as it had a branch at Kumbakonam, its other branch at Mannargudi should be ignored. This, the learned counsel contends, is an error app....
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....enable to a writ of certiorari but it must be a manifest error apparent on the face of the proceedings e.g., when it is based on clear ignorance or disregard of the provisions of law. This view was followed in Nagendra Nath Bora, v. The Commissioner Hills Division and Appeals, Assam , Satyanarayan v. Mallikarjun [1960] 1 S.C.R. Shri Ambica Mills Co. v. S. B. Bhutt ) [1961] 3 S.C.R. 920 and in Provincial Transport Services v. State Industrial Court, Nagpur [1963] 3 S.C.R. 650. But the more difficult question is, what is the precise meaning of the expression "'manifest error Apparent on the face of the proceedings ?" Venkatarama Ayyar, J., attempted to define the said expression in Hari Vishnu Kamath's Case [1955] 1 S.C.R. 1104,1121, 1123 thus "Mr. Pathak for the first respondent contended on the strength of certain observations of Chagla, C. J., in Botuk K. Vyas v. Surat Municipality [1958] S.C.R. 1240 , that no error could be said to be apparent on the face of the record if it was not self evident, and if it required an examination or argument to establish it. This test might afford a satisfactory ba....
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....cord. As the above discussion of the rival contentions show the alleged error in the present case is far from self- evident and if it can be established, it has. to be established, by lengthy and complicated arguments." The learned judge here lays down the complex nature of the arguments as a test of apparent error of law. This test also may break, for what is complex to one judicial mind may be clear and obvious to another : it depends upon the equipment of a particular judge. In the ultimate analysis the said concept is comprised of many imponderables : it is not capable of precise definition, as no objective criterion can be laid down, the apparent nature of the error, to a large extent, being dependent upon the subjective element. So too, in some cases the boundary between error of law and error of fact is rather thin. A tribunal may hold that 500 multiplied by 10,000 is 5 lakhs (instead of 50 lakhs); another tribunal may hold that a particular claim is barred by limitation by calculating the period of time from 1956 instead of 1961 ; and a third tribunal may make an obvious error deciding a mixed question of fact and law. The question whether the said errors are errors of l....
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....nal or authority but only afford a reasonable guide for exercising the said jurisdiction. Concretely stated, an applicant in advancing his claim for a permit may place before the Authority an important circumstance in his favour, namely, that he has a branch office on the route in respect whereof- he seeks for a permit. He may contend that he has an office on the route, and that the interests of the public will be better served, as the necessary amenities or help to meet any eventuality in the course of a trip will be within his easy reach. The Government also under s. 43A may issue instructions to the Regional Transport Authority that the existence of an office of a particular applicant on the route would be in the interests of the public and, therefore, the said applicant should be given a preferential treatment if other things are equal. The issue of such an instruction only emphasizes a relevant fact which an authority has to take into consideration even if such an instruction was not given. But if the Authority under a manifest error of law ignores the said relevant consideration, it not only disobeys the administrative directions given by the Government, but also transgresses....
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.... though it had one in fact. Whatever conflict there may be, on which we do not express any opinion, in a tax law or the company law, in the context of the marking system and the evaluation of an amenity in the interest of the public, it is obviously an untenable proposition to hold that even if a company has a well equipped office on a route in respect of which a permit is applied for, it shall be ignored if the company has some other branch somewhere unconnected with that route. That was what the Appellate Tribunal held and in our view it is an error apparent on the face of the record. On that erroneous view, the Appellate Tribunal did Dot decide the relevant question raised, namely, whether the respondent has any such office at mannargudi. Both Ramachandra Iyer, J., at the first instance, and Anantanarayanan and Venkatadri, jj., in 'appeal, rightly pointed out this error. As this is an error apparent on the face of the record, they quashed the order of the Appellate Tribunal and left the question open for decision by it. In our view, the conclusion arrived at by the High Court is correct. It remains only to notice the decisions on which strong reliance is placed by learned....
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....idered the applications on the basis of G.O. No. 1298 issued by the Government of Madras on April, 28, 1956. The Regional Transport Authority gave 4 marks each to the appellant and Gopalan Nair under Col. 1, which dealt with the building (1strength to viable units, and refused, to give any marks to respondents 3 and 4 under the said column on the ground that they were fleet owners; with the result that the appellant and Gopalan Nair secured more marks than respondents 3 and 4 and were, therefore, given the permits. But the Appellate Tribunal held that the appellant and Gopalan Nair were not entitled to claim the benefit of the marks under Col. 1, as they had secured less marks than respondents 3 and 4 under Cols. 3 to 5, for they held, on a fair obstruction of the said G.O., that it was only when the marks obtained by applicants under Cols. 2 to 5 were equal, recourse could be had to 'Col. 1. On that basis, the Appellate Tribunal quashed the order of the Regional Transport Authority and gave the permits to respondents 3 and 4. The appellant challenged the said order by an application under Art. 226 of the Constitution for a writ of certiorari in the High Court of Madras. Rajago....
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....not given the permit, as in the view of the said Authority he was guilty of misconduct. As between the other applicants, the appellant having secured the highest number of marks, he was given a permit. But on appeal the Appellate Tribunal reallotted the marks and under the reallotment the appellant got the highest number of marks; and because of that fact and also for the reason that he was a small operator of two buses, who should be given an opportunity to build up a viable unit as quickly as possible, he was given the permit by the Appellate Tribunal upholding the order of the Regional Transport Authority. One of the question raised there was whether the appellant was entitled to marks under Col. 2 for repair and maintenance, facilities at Dharapuram- the Appellate Tribunal found that he had such facilities. The appellant filed a writ in the High Court and the learned single judge thought that some mistakes had been committed by the Appellate Tribunal in the allotment of marks and that it acted in contravention of the directions given by the Government under the said G. O., but dismiss the petition on the ground that, as the said instructions are Only executive directions, their....
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....l operators. But a division Bench of that Court in Letters Patent appeal held, relying upon the earlier decision of this Court, that the said directions were only administrative in nature and that they did not confer any legal rights and in that view allowed the appeal. This Court again following the earlier decisions dismissed the appeal holding that by construing the administrative directions the Tribunal did not take irrelevant considerations or refused to take relevant considerations in the matter of issue of permits. It is always a controversial question whether the issue of a permit to a small operator or to a big operator would be in the interest of the public and a Tribunal is certainly entitled to take either view. It will be seen from the aforesaid decisions that this Court only laid down that the instructions given under s. 43A of the Motor Vehicles Act were only administrative directions and that the infringement of those instructions by the Tribunal did not confer any right on a party to apply to a High Court for a writ under Art. 226 of the Constitution. In all those cases the Tribunal either ignored the instructions or misconstrued them, but nonetheless decided the q....