( 1 ) THE business of operating public service vehicles is a trade regulated under the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, hereinafter referred to as the Act. The process of regulation of the trade and the hierarchy of the Tribunal constituted to give effect to the regulatory provisions of the Act is in itself a fruitful source of litigation between persons competing to enter or to expand their trade. A further complication has been introduced by the policy of nationalising some routes. Another factor which has contributed to increased litigation is that the State Government has looked at the problem of public interest from different standpoints from time to time. All these elements have combined together and are reflected in the present bunch of five writ petitions which we are called upon to decide. Since the question of factual involvement in all these cases are common and the dispute in the writ petition relates to the same route we propose to decide these writ petitions by a common judgment.

( 2 ) THERE is a route known as Saha-ranpur to Muzaffarnagar via Baman Heri, Deoband, Nagal, and Gagal Heri. This whole of the said route formerly lay within the jurisdic