Summary
Rules of natural justice vary with the varying constitutions of statutory bodies and the rules prescribed by the legislature under which they have to act, and the question whether in a particular case they have been contravened must be judged not by any preconceived notion of what they may be but in the light of the provisions of the relevant Act.
Case-law discussed.The provisions of ss. 47, 48, 64 and the rules framed under s. 68 of the Motor Vehicles Act make it abundantly clear that a Regional Transport Authority and an Appellate Authority in hearing an appeal, function in a quasi-judicial capacity and not as courts of law and are not required to record oral or documentary evidence and, in deciding as between the rival claims of applicants for stage carriage permits, what they are required to do is to deal with such claims in a fair and just manner. The Act, however, amply provides for the safeguarding of their interests.Veerappa Pillai v. Raman & Raman Ltd, [1952] S.C.R. 583, referred to, 99Consequently, in a case where the Regional Transport Autho- rity refused to grant a permit to an applicant on account of an adverse police report and the Appellate Authority granted the same on the basis of a further report by the police, whereby all material allegations against him were withdrawn and nothing was said against his rival which would require to be controverted by him, and the Chairman read out such report at the hearing of the appeal without any objection by any of the interested parties or any request for adjournment and a Division Bench of the High Court in appeal, reversing the decision of a single judge made under Arts. 226 and 227 Of the Constitution, held that the rules of natural justice had been contravened by reason of the failure on the part of the Appellate Authority to adjourn the proceeding suo motu in order to afford the rival claimant an opportunity to meet the revised police report, its decision was erroneous and must be set aside.Held, further, that the reading out of the contents of the poiice report by the Chairman at the hearing of the appeal was enough compliance with the rules of natural justice as there was nothing in the rules requiring a copy of it to be furnished to any of the parties.See the full content of this document
Extract
New Prakash Transport Co. Ltd. VS. New Suwarna Transport Co. Ltd.
PETITIONER: NEW PRAKASH TRANSPORT CO. LTD.Vs.RESPONDENT: NEW SUWARNA TRANSPORT CO. LTD.DATE OF JUDGMENT: 30/09/1956BENCH: ACT: Road Transport-Application for stage carriage Permit-Police report-Procedure-Appellate Authority, if bound to adjourn proceeding suo mctu-Failure Of natural Justice--Motor Vehicles Act (II, Of 1939), ss. 47, 48, 64, 68.JUDGMENT: CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 74 of 1956.Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated September 22, 1955, of the Nagpur High Court in Letters Patent Appeal No. 2 of 1955.C.K. Daphtary, Solicitor-General for India, J. N. Bannerji and P. C. Agarwala, for the appellant.M.C. Setalvad, Attorney-General for India and Naunit Lal, for respondent No. 1.1956. September 30. The Judgment of the Court was delivered bySINHA J.-This is an appeal by special leave from the judgment and order, dated September 22, 1955, passed by the Letters Patent Bench of the Nagpur High Court reversing those of a single Judge of that Court, dated December 13, 1954, refusing to issue a writ in the nature of a certiorari.The facts of this case lie in a short compass and may be stated as follows: The Suwarna Transport Company Limited, which will be referred to as the first respondent in the course of this judgment, held seven permits for running buses on the Buldana-Malkapur route, as the 100sole operator on that route. It applied for another permit for the same route. The appellant, The New Prakash Transport Co. Ltd., as also another party, called the Navjivan Transport Service (not cited in this Court) applied for a similar permit on that route. On May 26, 1953, all the three applicants aforesaid were heard by the Regional Transport Authority of Amraoti, which is the third respondent in this Court, in connection with the permit applied for. Consideration of the several applications was postponed, but a resolution was passed to the effect that"No one service should have monopoly on Buldana-Malkapur route." On March 30, 1954, another meeting of the Regional Transport Authority took place and the first respondent was granted the permit. The appellant's application was rejected on the ground that the police report was against it. The appellant preferred an appeal ...
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