Judgment

V. R. KRISHNA IYER, J. (for himself and on behalf of A. N. Ray C. J.):- A terse presentation of the twin contentions canvassed before us, in these appeals by special leave, after discomfiture at two tiers below, highlights the importance of the economic role of the State in undertaking with legal preferences, strategic services vital to the community. The keynote thought underlying our decision is that the jural postulates of the old competitive order have to yield place to the new values of developmental jurisprudence. Public law, in India, responding to the public needs and the States functional role mandated by the Constitution, has evolved new approaches to old problems and given up dogmas which once prevailed during laissez-faire days but now have become obsolete because of the welfare economy which has been nurtured. This radical change in jural perspectives has its impact on canons of statutory construction and on verdicts about the vires of legislation. All these generalities acquire appropriate application in the present cases which arise under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (Act IV of 1939) (the Act, for short) from challenges before the High Court without avail, by