Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- These appeals stem out of a litigation which germinated from a certain nationalisation scheme contemplated in Chapter IV-A of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Act IV of 1939) (hereinafter called the Act).

2. More than a decade ago, the State Transport Undertaking of Uttar Pradesh (hereinafter referred to as the Undertaking, for short) took steps for framing four schemes for four routes and proceeded to publish the necessary, notification in the Uttar Pradesh Gazette, copies whereof were sent to Rajasthan for being pasted on the notice-boards of the Transport Authorities in that State. A statutory enquiry, envisaged in Chapter IV-A, followed. Some operators - not the appellants - raised objections and, eventually, the schemes were approved. Of course these schemes related to inter-State routes and had received the concurrence of the State of Rajasthan. Although the Act contemplates the framing of schemes for nationalisation for the obvious benefit of the travelling public by provision of an efficient, adequate economical and properly co-ordinated road transport service and affords statutory opportunity for raising objections and making representations, not mer