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Kerala State Road Transport Corporation v. Baby P.P. & Ors. (and connected appeals)

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 525Decided 16 May 2018
Civil Appeal No. 5257 of 2018
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

Kerala had notified a scheme reserving the Kottayam-Kozhikode route for its State Transport Undertaking (KSRTC), with only limited overlap allowed for private stage-carriage operators from other routes. A private operator (respondent no.1) obtained a temporary permit from the Regional Transport Authority to ply on this notified route, on the reasoning that KSRTC had not itself applied for or was not utilising a permit there. The State Transport Appellate Tribunal and then the Kerala High Court upheld this grant, prompting KSRTC and the District Transport Officer to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a temporary permit cannot be granted to a private operator to run on a notified route being served by the State Transport Undertaking beyond the overlap expressly permitted by the scheme (here, 5 km or 5% of the route, whichever is less), doing so would defeat the purpose of the notified scheme, which exists precisely to keep such routes reserved for the STU. It distinguished the precedent the private operator relied on (Punjab Roadways) because that case involved a route split between STU and private operators in a fixed ratio, unlike this scheme, which reserved the whole route for KSRTC. It also declined to consider documents about other temporary permits that were produced only two days before final arguments, without giving KSRTC a fair opportunity to respond. Accordingly, the Court set aside the STAT's order, the RTA's consequent permit grant, and the High Court's judgment, allowing all the appeals.

Lesson Learnt

Where a government transport scheme reserves a route for the state corporation (subject to a defined overlap allowance), private operators cannot use the "no permit applied for" exception to effectively take over that route: the scheme's reservation prevails, and any permit granted beyond the permitted overlap is liable to be struck down.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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