The Transport Authority's discretion in granting or refusing permit applications is not restricted to the grounds mentioned in the Motor Vehicles Act, and all relevant factors must be considered in exercising this discretion.

The narrow stretch of land from Vypin to Munambam is a peninsula surrounded by back waters except an isthmus by which the area is joined with the main land. The density of population in this area is probably one of the thickest in India. (2268 persons per sq. km. Kerala's average density is 655 persons per sq .km.). It has only one motorable road starting from one end of the peninsula with its terminus on the other end having a distance of 26 Kms. The result is a high pressure traffic over a limited infrastructure. Out of the 76 stage carriages plying on the road, 63 are operated by private individuals and 13 are conducted by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.

2. Petitioners applied for stage carriage permits on routes covering different sectors of this peninsula. But the Regional Transport Authority (for short 'the Transport authority') rejected the applications solely on the ground that no fresh permits can be issued on the route between Vypin and Munambam based on the recommendations of NATPAC (which is an acronym developed from the first letters of National Transportation Planning and Research Center). Petitioners filed appeals • before the State Transport Appellate Tribunal (for short' the Appellate Tribunal'). As one of the applicants got permit granted only up to Cherai (since concurrence was not granted by a sister Transport Authority for the route beyond the said point) he filed a revision before the Appellate Tribunal. By a common judgment, the appeals and revision were disposed of. Appellate Tribunal concurred with the reasoning of the Transport Authority that in the light of recommendations of NATPAC no fresh permit can be granted on the said route. The Original Petitions are in challenge of the orders of the Transport Authority as well as the common judgment of the Appellate Tribunal dismissing the appeals and revision.

3. The recommendations of NATPAC disfavour granting additional permits on a small sector of the route (between Njarakkal and Cherai). In the project report submitted by NATPAC, it is pointed out that "the existing Vypin - Munambam road, particularly the section between Njarakkal and Cherai is already strained very much by the vehicular traffic system and so introduction of any additional bus service on this section without widening the present road system and bridges will only add problems instead of solving them". Appellate Tribunal also relied on the aforesaid report of NATPAC and declined to grant the permits applied for.

4. It was contended by learned counsel for petitioners that it is not open to the Transport Authority to dismiss the application for regular stage carriage permit, except on the grounds specifically inhibited by the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short 'the Act').

5. S.71 of the Act deals with the procedure for considering application for stage carriage permit. The provision contains two restrictions against granting permits. Sub-section (2) says that a Transport Authority shall refuse to grant permit if the timetable furnished by the applicant is likely to cause contravention of provisions of the Act relating to speed. Sub-section (3) says that the State Government can direct the Transport Authority to limit the number of stage carriages generally or of any specified type operating on city routes. Sub-section (4) contains another restriction that the Transport Authority shall not grant more than five stage carriage permits to any individual or more than ten stage carriage permits to any company. The contention is that no application can be rejected except on the grounds mentioned in S.71 of the Act.

6. The aforesaid argument is mainly based on S.80 of the Act which says that "a Regional Transport Authority shall not ordinarily refuse to grant an application for permit of any kind made at any time under this Act". Merely because the statute directs that a Transport Authority shall not refuse to grant an application "ordinarily", it does not mean that power to re