JUDGMENT

R.M. Sahai, J.

1. What arises for consideration in these, appeals directed against judgment and order of the High Court of Madras is whether the provision of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Act, 1992 (Act No. 41 of 1992) (hereinafter called the Act) prohibiting grant of any permit overlapping whole or part of the notified route after 30th June, 1990 is invalid and ultra vires being violative of Article 14 for creating two classes among small operators by arbitrarily providing cut-off date and what is the ambit and scope of Section 10 and whether the decision of this Court in Pandtyan Roadways Corporation Ltd. v. Thiru M. A. Egappan requires reconsideration.

2. In the State of Tamil Nadu the State Government after addition of Chapter IV-A in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 framed various schemes in 1976 nationalising different routes. The effect of publication of the draft scheme was that the private stage carriage operators were excluded from operating on any part of it. But on various routes there were bifurcations; and the State Transport Authorities issued new permits and renewed existing permits for these routes which in course of its journey traversed par