The judgment established that the power to remand is implicit in the appellate jurisdiction created by S.64 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939.

1. This is an appeal by the 3rd respondent in O.P. No. 313 of 1958 against the decision in that petition. The decision has since been reported, 1961 KLJ. 863.

2. The Regional Transport Authority, Kozhikode, granted a stage carriage permit to the petitioner in O.P. No. 313 of 1958 and rejected the application of the 3rd respondent. The 3rd respondent challenged the correctness of the order before the State Transport Appellate Tribunal by an appeal under S.64 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, Appeal No. 35 of 1957. The State Transport Appellate Tribunal set aside the order and remanded the case for fresh disposal to the Regional Transport Authority, Kozhikode. The Original Petition was directed against the order of remand.

3. Vaidialingam, J., held that the State Transport Appellate Tribunal had no powers of remand, and that even if it had such a power, the circumstances of the case did not justify the remand directed by the Tribunal. We are in entire agreement with the second of the two conclusions and that is sufficient to entail a dismissal of this appeal.

4. In considering the second aspect of the case the learned judge reviewed all the relevant facts and said:

"I am satisfied that the order of remand in the circumstances of this case, is absolutely unnecessary. The entire materials were available before the appellate tribunal and the appellate tribunal could have certainly, on those materials, come to a conclusion either agreeing with or differing from the conclusions arrived at by the R.T.A. The remand in this case, in my opinion, is really an abdication by the appellate authority of its proper and legitimate duty under S.64 of the Motor Vehicles Act. Even on this view the order of the appellate tribunal will have to be set aside."

There is nothing on record which indicates that the conclusion is incorrect and we are unable to accept the contention of the appellant that a different conclusion is possible.

5. The question whether a State Transport Appellate Tribunal in dealing with an appeal under S.64 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, has the power to remand the case to the Regional Transport Authority for fresh disposal or not is a question of importance. It is essentially for a decision of that question that this appeal has been posted before a Full Bench.

6. S.64 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, only says that the persons specified therein may, within the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner, appeal to the prescribed authority who shall give such persons and the original authority an opportunity of being heard. A power of remand is not specifically mentioned in the section. But as pointed out by the Supreme Court in AIR. 1959 S.C. 851, S.64 "is not concerned with defining the powers of the appellate authority and does not purport to do so."

7. The only question is whether a power to remand should be considered as having been granted by necessary implication. It is certainly not excluded by the fact that the original authority gets an

opportunity of being heard.

8. In AIR. 1956 Ajmer 41 Nigam, J.C., said:

"In my opinion, the power of remand is inherent in the very constitution of an appellate Court. An appellate Court has the right to set aside the order of the trial Court. When it does so, it may go further and substitute its own order for the order appealed against or it may not go so far and may merely quash the order appealed against and automatically require the subordinate authority to restore the original cause and to decide it afresh.

"In my opinion, the absence of a power of remand would limit and to some extent negative the completeness of the power of the appellate authority and I am, therefore, of opinion that whether there is a specific provision or not, the power to order a remand must be taken to be inherent in every appellate Court in its very constitution as an appellate authority."

To the same effect is AIR. 1959 Andhra Pradesh 321. AIR. 1960 Assam 100 also takes the view that the power to remand