Rule 171 of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Rules supplements the procedure laid down in S.88(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act and does not supersede it. The Regional Transport Authority has the discretion to decide which procedure to adopt for granting permits on inter-regional routes.

Petitioner has applied for the grant of a regular stage carriage permit on an inter-district (or inter-regional) route. As major portion of the route lies within the territorial limits of Regional Transport Authority, Trissur, the application was made before that Transport Authority. The Secretary of the Transport Authority, instead of placing the application for consideration before the Transport Authority, addressed a letter to the Secretary of the other Regional Transport Authority. Ext. P3 Is a copy of the communication which the Secretary of the Regional Transport Authority, Trissur, addressed to the petitioner in which the petitioner was informed that his "application will be placed before the R.T. A. on receipt of the concurrence". Petitioner challenges the action of the Secretary of the Regional Transport Authority, Trissur, in this Original Petition.

2. The thrust of the contention raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that it was open to the Regional Transport Authority of any one region to grant a permit and it is for the permit holder to apply for counter signature by the Regional Transport Authority of the other region. He relied on S.88(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short'the Act') in support of the contention. The sub-section reads thus:

"Validation of permits for use outside region in which granted.-Except as may be otherwise prescribed, a permit granted by the Regional Transport Authority of any one region shall not be valid in any other region, unless the permit has been countersigned by the Regional Transport Authority of that other region, and a permit granted in any one State shall not be valid in any other State unless countersigned by the State Transport Authority of that other State or by the Regional Transport Authority concerned:"

(Since the three provisos to the sub-section are not material for this decision they are omitted). Sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) of S.88 of the Act are also material and hence they are extracted below:

(2) Not withstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), a permit granted or countersigned by a State Transport Authority shall be valid in the whole State or in such regions within the State as may be specified in the permit.

(3) A Regional Transport Authority when countersigning the permit may attach to the permit any condition which it might have imposed if it had granted the permit and may likewise vary any condition attached to the permit by the authority by which the permit was granted.

(4) The provisions of this Chapter relating to the grant, revocation and suspension of permits shall apply to the grant, revocation and suspension of countersignatures of permits:" (Proviso is omitted).

3. Every application for a permit shall be made, under S.69, to the Regional Transport Authority of the region in which it is proposed to use the vehicle. If it is proposed to use the vehicle in two or more regions lying within the same State, the application shall be made to the Regional Transport Authority of the. Region in which major portion of the proposed route or area lies. S.72 of the Act empowers the Regional Transport Authority to grant a stage carriage permit of any kind on the application made at any time under the Act. Of course, the Regional Transport Authority has power to summarily reject the application if it falls within the first proviso to S.80

4. If one reads S.88 in the background of the above provisions, it would appear that the Transport Authority before whom the application lawfully lies has the power to grant the permit. The only snag is that unless the permit is counter signed by the Transport Authority of the other region the permit shall not be valid in that region. But the difficulty to follow the said procedure is on account of the commencing words in the sub-section "except as may be otherwise prescribed". Those words indicate that the rule making authority shall have the power to prescribe rules providing a different procedure