P L D 1962 W (PLP)

Haji Muhammad Ramzan for Respondents. Qadir Bakhsh Transport Company Hyderabad, has preferred this appeal under section 64 of the Motor Vehicles Act against the R. T. A. Hyderabad's order dated 2-7-1960, granting two stage carriage permits to respondent Hala-Shahdadpur Bus Service-on Kotri-Sann route comprising a distance, at present, of 32 miles pacca. The facts are that the appellants were granted two `B' Parts in 1954, for the route Kotri to Sann via Petaro. They plied on this route for' nearly two years till 1956, when owing to terrible flood damage, the route became un-motorable as the 'entire road beyond Petaro wash washed away. One of their buses is also claimed to have been submerged and to have remained under water for six months causing them enormous losses. They had applied for renewal of the permits, which was granted to them but they did not ply the buses as the road continued to be unmotorable. In 1960, the route was declared open without canceling their permits. The appellant applied for the route as well as the respondent with the usual Rs. 100 application fees. The R. T. A. accommodated the respondent service, in view of the fact that they had been dislodged from the Hala-Shahdadpur route a distance of 16 miles pacca on the Government Transport Service taking over that portion on a monopoly basis. The appellant's application was turned down on the ground that they had not collected their permits after renewals, nor plied services on the route despite notice. The counsel for the appellant contends that his client gave cogent written reasons for not plying the services in response to the notice. These were not placed before the R. T. A. nor was an opportunity given to him to be heard in person. He even represented that the road was still bad with some eleven gaps from 1 to 3 furlongs from miles 19 to 32 on the Petaro to Khanot section of this route. The Chairman, R. T. A. has confirmed in his report that the road has been bad for five years. The Secretary R. T. A. also confirms that the section Kotri-Petaro of the route is a nationalized portion and plying is allowed to private operators on corridor basis only i.e., passengers cannot be taken or picked up between Kotri and Petaro. It is also established that the appellant hails from Lakha situated between Mahajan and Sarin, being 4 miles from former and 7 miles -from the latter and he still claims that as such it is in his interest to provide efficient service to the public of his area. The respondent admits that he has no particular interest in this route, as he is a resident of Hala. This route has not been very profitable to him and one of his two lorries has suffered a serious accident to its chassis and frame in one of the pit-holes and is under repairs. He would much rather like to be accommodated either m his former Hala-Shahdadpur route or some other route near Hala. In this situation I find that there was little justification for the R. T. A. to prefer the claims of the respondent over the appellant, who had also applied and who had been unable to continue these services on this route, owing to reasons beyond his control. The R. T. A. ought to have accommodated the respondent elsewhere and to have given the appellant an oppor tunity to render service as well as to make good the losses suffered by him in running the service in this area during the floods. I would, therefore, accept the appeal, set aside the order of the R. T. A. and grant to the appellant the two B' Parts one of which, in fact, has never been cancelled. The respondent should, however, be allowed to ply on this route on a temporary basis for a short period pending the grant of a suitable route to him. This grant of new route should not be difficult, since the orders are about to be anno unced breaking the monopoly of the Government Transport Service. As soon as this announcement is made, the R. T. A. could grant temporary permits to the respondents for his old route or some other suitable route pending completion of formalities for the permanent grants of their permits. Before I conclude, I would like to mention that I am not at all convinced that there should be a monopoly running of services between Kotri and Petaro. In my opinion unless the appellants are allowed to serve the public on this section, the eleven gaps in the remaining metalled portion of the route are reported by the P. W. D. to be in such rotten condition, that the rest of the route would become wholly unremunerative. It was this merciless attitude of the Government Transport Service to collar all the Pacca remunerative routes, leaving un-remunerative desert routes and Katcho routes on which roads were in atrocious condition, to private parties, which has stood in the way of healthy organisation of passenger services in the private sector and has caused so much distress to the traveling public of the Southern Zone, with a policy like this, the R. T. A. has found it difficult to sanction remunerative routes to those running un-remunerative routes in desert area and, therefore, very few such transport companies have had the finance to build up reserve fleets. This is understood to be a major factor in the decision to break the R. T. A.'s monopoly. I consider it natural waste that the buses of these transport companies should be going half empty on the Kotri-Petaro section, but should be prevented from picking up passengers in need of it simply because the G. T. S. claims its monopoly on this metalled section. I shall also take up this case with the Chairman, West Pakistan Road Transport Board on return to Lahore. The R. T. A. should also take up the question of G. T. S. running on non-monopoly basis between Kotri and Petaro, in order that a fair chance may be given to parties plying from Kotri to Sarin. K. M. A. Appeal accepted.