The transfer of a permit to a new route amounts to the issue of a new permit and requires compliance with the procedure under Section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939.

( 1 ) THE facts in this case are briefly as follows:

( 2 ) THE Respondent No. 1, Sk. Serajuddin, owned ten buses or stage carriages Which were plying on divers routes In Calcutta and its suburbs. In September 1950, permits for eight buses out of the said ten buses were cancelled and permits were granted to the said Respondent for two buses on Route No. 33. Since then the said route was taken over for plying State Buses of the Government of West Bengal. In March 1954, the Regional Transport Authority directed that the said two buses should ply on Route 12c with effect from April 1954. On June 21, 1954, the said Respondent, made an application for variation of the permits in nig favour by transfer of his buses from Route No. 12c to Route No. 78. The said application was recom- mended and forwarded by the Additional District Magistrate 24 Perganas to the R. T. A. Calcutta. The R. T. A. gave notice of the said application to the petitioner Association and to the Directorate of Transportation, Government of West Bengal. The petitioner Association objected to the said transfer. The main objection Was that there were a sufficient number of buses already operating on the route and that a further increase Would be uneconomic. One of the grounds of objection however was as follows:". . . . . that neither under the M. V. Act nor under the Rules made thereunder, the R. T. A. . is entitled to transfer any bus from one route to another without complying with the provisions of section 47 of the M. V. Act because this application for transfer tantamounts to a new application for fresh permits. "the R. T. A. considered the application upon the merits and rejected it upon, the ground that there were no vacancies on the said route, which practically amounted to upholding the main objection of the petitioner that there was no scope for adding to the number of buses already plying on route No. 33. This order of rejection was made on December 23, 1954. On or about January 21, 1955 the Respondent No. 1 preferred an appeal against the order of the R. T. A. , to the Appeal Sub Committee of the State Transport Authority. The appeal was allowed by the Appeal Sub Committee by its order dated 11/23rd February 1955. The order commences as follows:"appeal by Sk Serajuddin against the order dated 23-12-54 of R. T. A. Calcutta rejecting his prayer for transfer of his 2 stage carriages from route No. 12c to 78". I have set out the above preamble to show that the Appeal Sub Committee was not considering the transfer of the buses from route 33 to route 12c. In fact, route 33 is not at all mentioned in the order.

( 3 ) BEFORE the Appeal Sub Committee, the petitioner had taken the point that the appeal did not lie against an order of the R. T. A. refusing to vary the permit or conditions thereof. This point does not appear to have been considered at all by the Appeal Sub Committee.

( 4 ) THE petitioner thereupon filed an appeal on February 28, 1955 to the Appeal Committee of the State Transport Authority and inter alia took the point of jurisdiction. By an order dated 29 July/9 August 1955 the Appeal Committee rejected the appeal, stating that it failed to find any reason to interfere with the decision of the Appellate Sub Committee. This rule was issued on the 8th December 1955 upon the respondents to show cause why a writ in the nature of certiorari should not be issued, quashing the aforesaid orders of the Appeal Sub Committee and the Appeal Committee and why a writ in the nature of mandamus should not be issued directing the said respondents to forbear from giving effect to the said orders and why such further or other orders should not be made as to the Court seems fit and proper.

( 5 ) MR. Deb, on behalf of the petitioner has argued as follows:

( 6 ) FIRST of all he points out to the provisions of section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'act' ). This section lays down the procedure to be followed by the Regional Tra