Judgment

KRISHNA IYER J.:- Arbitrary orders and mystical directions have poor mileage in this court when irrelevance and unreason are writ on their face even though the sanctity of concurrent error may give them some shelter.

2. To play a contract carriage is a fundamental right but it can be restricted reasonably as has been done by the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. The perspective is that what is fundamental is the right, not the restriction. Here, one Mudaliar, the appellant, owned a luxury coach, plied it for public benefit under a permit of 1971 for five years. The statutory criteria for grant of such permits is set out in S. 50 and renewals of permits must be governed by the same considerations, the procedure being regulated by S. 58. There is no grievance made that procedural violations are involved here. All that we know is that the permit was to expire in March 1976 and so a renewal application was made two months earlier. The State Transport Authority (for short, S. T. A.) rejected the request for renewal on the score that the ITDC has expanded its activities and has in the field many tourist vehicles. Then the Authority added : It is said that the utilisation of these vehicles