( 1 ) BY these writ petitions the petitioners pray for a writ of mandamus so as to restrain Regional Transport Authority (hereinafter referred to as R. T. A.) from granting any permit on their routes. With the consent of learned counsel for both the parties in all these cases we have made writ petition No. 21773 of 1989, Santosh Kumar v. Road Transport Authority, as the leading case.

( 2 ) THE routes, Muzaffarnagar-Shamli-Jhinjana-Don-Chausana and Shamli-Chausana extended up to Muzaffarnagar (hereinafter referred to as route) are within the jurisdiction of R. T. A. and the petitioners are holding regular stage carriage permit on the route and are existing operators. A proposal (hereinafter referred to as Draft Scheme) under S. 68-C of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 (hereinafter referred to as old Act) was published on 13-2-1986, proposing to nationalise route as well as various other routes. The petitioners claim that during pendency of this Draft Scheme of 1986 no permit can be granted to any person.

( 3 ) OLD Act as originally enacted did not contain any provision for nationalisation of route. It was in 1956 that Chapter IV-A was added by Central Act 100 of 1956 wh