Judgment

DESAI, J.:- Petitioners in this group of petitions under Art. 32 of the Constitution and petitions for special leave to appeal were at the relevant time holders of stage carriage permits granted to them under the M. V. Act, 1939 (Act for short), and were operating stage carriages on the routes for which permits were granted. Scheme No. 50-M was framed and publicised by the Madhya Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (Corporation for short), covering certain routes including (i) Rewa-Shahdol; and (ii) Satna-Ramnagar, which were to be reserved for exclusive operation by the Corporation. After objections were invited and heard, the scheme was finally approved and it came into force on January 20, 1979. On the approved scheme coming into force part of the routes on which petitioners were operating overlapped with the notified routes. Consequently their permits were curtailed prohibiting them from operating their stage carriages on a portion of their routes which were overlapping with the notified routes. This action was challenged by filing writ petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur. A Division Bench of the High Court rejected all the petitions except one. Hence some petitions for special leave and other writ petitions filed by the petitioners who are operators of the stage carriages and who are affected by the curtailment of their permits consequent upon the approved scheme coming into force.

2. Number of contentions were raised before the High Court, about the validity of the scheme, the procedure adopted while approving the scheme, the opportunity to raise objections and the consideration of the objections. None of them found favour with the High Court and the reasons which appealed to the High Court rejecting those contentions are so convincing that we adopt them and reject all those contentions.

3. The only contention that survives for our consideration is that while cancelling and/or curtailing certain permits for routes, parts of which overlapped with the notified routes there were other permit holders in the same class having stage carriage permits for certain routes parts of which were overlapping with the notified route and yet in the case of petitioners their permits were curtailed prohibiting them from operating their stage carriages on that portion of the route for which they had permit which was overlapping with the notified route, while others in all 19 who, though, similarly situated, were favourably treated by neither curtailing nor cancelling their permits and were permitted to ply their stage carriages on the routes for which they had permits passing over a portion of the notified route without any let or hindrance. The contention is that this is hostile discrimination by executive act without any valid criteria for picking and choosing and that the discrimination is so writ large on its face that the Corporation and the State Government did not try to justify the same before either the Special Secretary who heard the objections or the High Court and took convenient refuge under the plea of unconscious and unintentional discrimination through oversight relying upon Ramnath Verma v. State of Rajasthan, (1963) 2 SCR 152. Those 19 operators who received a favourable yet unjustified treatment are listed at page 45 in Special Leave Petition No. 6150/79. Neither the learned counsel for the Corporation nor Mr. Gambhir for the State of Madhya Pradesh attempted to justify classification amongst operators holding stage carriage permits and plying vehicles on routes part of which was overlapping with the notified route.

4. Before we examine what has been laid down by this Court in Ramnath Vermas case (AIR 1967 SC 603) it would be advantageous to recall how the Special Secretary appointed to hear objections and approve the scheme dealt with this contention of the petitioners. In paragraph 13 of his order he has observed as under :

"It is clear from the evidence