Judgment

Arijit Pasayat, J.—Challenge in these appeals is to a composite order of a learned single Judge of the Allahabad High Court dismissing the writ petitions filed by the present appellants. The basic question before the High Court was whether the permits granted to the appellants by the State Transport Authority, U.P. Lucknow (in short ‘the S.T.A.’) could be legally sustained. It is to be noted that on a revision filed by the non-official respondents, the State Transport Appellate Tribunal, U.P., Lucknow (in short ‘the Tribunal’) set aside the grant of permits and held that the action of the STA was mala-fide; it had acted in clear contravention of the statutory requirements and, therefore, the grant of permit was an exercise which had no legal sanction. This order of the Tribunal was the subject matter of challenge in the writ petitions. The High Court essentially came to record three findings; (a) in respect of notified routes, the permits could not have been granted; (b) action of the STA in taking over the route was impermissible, mala-fide and (c) the exercise of power by the STA in granting the permits was equally unsustainable, being mala-fide.

2. In support of the appea