Plying of spare buses without permit amounts to contravention of section 42(1) of M.V. Act.

In these to revision petitions the petitioners (accused 1 to 4) were tried by the Munsiff-Magistrate of Kalpetta for an offence under section 123 read with section 42(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) for having plied their spare buses on different dates along the Meppady-Ooty route without having a permit. According to the learned Counsel for the petitioners these spare buses need not separately take out a permit under section 42(1) for use in case of break down of a route bus and in any view of the case accused 2 to 4 cannot be found guilty as they have not ‘caused’ or ‘allowed’ the drivers to use these vehicles. The question of law raised being the same and as these cases were argued together they can be disposed of conveniently in one common judgment.

There are two buses involved KLD 270 and MDN 2284, both belonging to the Rajalakshmi Motor Service. The first accused in each of the cases is the driver of the respective buses and accused 2 to 4 are said to be the owners. P.W. 1 is the Sub-Inspector of Police, Meppady who has proved that these two buses were plying between Ooty and Meppady on the different dates and that it had no permit to run. on these routes. That these buses were, in fact, run on these routes on the different dates is admitted.

Section 42 of the Act reads:

“No owner of a transport vehicle shall use or permit the use of the vehicle in any public place-save in accordance with the conditions of a permit granted or countersigned, by a Regional or State transport authority authorising the use of the vehicle in that place in the manner in which the vehicle-is being used.”

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Section 123 of the Act says:

“Whoever drives a motor vehicle or causes or allows a motor vehicle to be used in contravention of the provisions of section 22 or without the permit required by sub-section (1) of section 42 or in contravention of any conditions of such permit relating to the route on which or the area in which or the purpose for which the vehicle may be used, shall be punishable..........”

Section 2(33) defines ‘transport vehicle’ as a public service vehicle or a goods vehicle.

Section 2(25) says a ‘public service vehicle’ means any motor vehicle used or adapted to be used for the carriage of passengers for hire or reward, and includes a motor cab, contract carriage and stage carriage.

Section 2(29) gives the definition of stage carriage’. Stage carriage means a motor vehicle carrying or adapted to carry more than 6 persons excluding the driver which carries passengers for hire or reward at separate fares paid by or for individual’s passengers either for the whole journey or for stages of the journey.

These buses come within the meaning of the term ‘transport vehicles’.

So section 42 provides that a person should not use or permit a motor vehicle to be used on any road as stage carriage unless he is the holder of a public service vehicle licence to use it as a vehicle of that class in accordance with the statutory provisions. An application for the grant of a stage carriage permit has to be made under section 46 specifying inter alia the routes or the area on which the vehicle is intended to be run and in the permit so granted the routes permitted would be entered and it is one of the conditions subject to which a permit is granted.

Under section 48(2) every stage carriage permit shall be expressed to be valid only for a specified route or routes or for a specified area. Section 62 deals with the grant of a temporary permit to meet a particular temporary need.

Rajalakshmi Motor Service runs a route bus from Ooty to Meppady, but on account of the temporary break down of that bus these two spare buses were used on the different dates.

The registration certificate of these buses were produced for scrutiny before the Court below, but it was not marked. The permit of the two buses have been produced now, by the defence counsel, in this Court with a petition Criminal M.P. 315/65 to receive th