Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.

( 1 ) SPECIAL leave granted in all the cases.

( 2 ) THESE appeals raise common questions of law and may therefore, be disposed of by a common judgment. In exercise of its powers under S. 63 (7) of the Motor Vehicles Act, the Central Government specified 50 as the number of all India Tourist Vehicle Permits which may be granted by the Karnataka State Transport Authority. By S. 24 of Amending Act 47 of 1978, a proviso to S. 63 (7) was introduced. We are concerned in these appeals with the vires and interpretation of this proviso. By the time the proviso came into force. 36 permits had been granted by the Karnataka State Transport Authority and 14 remained to be granted. There were as many as 495 applications for the grant of these 14 permits. By an order dated 1/02/1984, the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka State Transport Authority to dispose of these applications. The State Transport Authority, by its proceedings dated 30/04/1984, granted 11 out of the 14 permits to the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation, one permit to the Indian Tourism Development Corporation and two permits to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. A number of