JAGADISAN, J. :- The petitioner and the first respondent are engaged in the business of transport service, operating motor buses, or stage carriages in the parlance of the Motor Vehicles Act, in and around Chingleput Dt. The first respondent is a limited company holding two stage carriage permits on the route Madras to Kancheepuram. In respect of two of its buses on that route it applied for an extension of that route to a place in North Arcot Dt. called Nemili. The application was made to the Regional Transport authority, Chingleput, and it purported to be an application for variation of the route Madras-Kancheepuram as Madras-Kancheepuram-Nemili. In other words, the applicant-operator desired to shift the terminus of Kancheepuram to Nemili - a place which is at a distance of 15 miles from Kancheepuram. The application was duly notified by the transport authority under S. 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, hereinafter referred to as the Act, and objections were made by various persons, including the petitioner.

It appears that the authority was inclined to take the view that the variation asked for should not be granted and that the proposal should be dropped. The order to this