The petitioner and the fourth respondent were rival applicants for a stage carriage permit to ply buses on he Coimbatore-Thathamangalam route. The Regional Transport Authority granted a permit to the fourth respondent on 18th February, 1952. The appeal by the petitioner against that grant preferred to the Central Road Traffic Board was rejected on 2nd June, 1952. The petitioner unsuccessfully invoked the revisional powers of the Government, who rejected his petition on 9th September, 1952. To set aside these orders the petitioner presented this application under Article 226 of the Constitution. The application was presented on nth December, 1952.

A portion of the Coimbatore-Thathamangalam route lay within the limits of the Madras State and the rest was in Travancore-Cochin. Each State had to grant a permit for the portion of the route that lay in that State, and unless the same person was given permits by both the States, a continuous service without subjecting the travelling public to the inconveniences of transhipment, could not be maintained.

The petitioner’s case was that on the date the Regional Transport Authority, Coimbatore, granted the permit to the fourth respondent, p