( 1 ) THE petitioner is a transport operator who possessed three public carrier permits in 1948 for basti-Bahraich route which travelled via Faizabad. He possessed another permit for Basti-Tanda route which again travelled via Faizabad. Ajodhia is one of the towns through which these routes travel; a part of the route thus lies between Ajodhia and Faizabad. These permits when they were granted were not treated by the Department to be permits for inter-regional routes; they were, on the other hand, assumed to lie within one and the same region, i. e. Gorakhpur region. The necessary permit fee also was charged on that basis. After these permits expired in 1950 the chief Inspector of Offices discovered, in the course of one of his inspections in 1951, that the above two routes were inter-regional routes as the portion of the routes between Ajodhia and faizabad existed in the Allahabad region though the rest existed in the Gorakhpur region. According to Rule 55 of the U. P. Motor Vehicle Rules, 1940, as in force in this State, a higher fee is chargeable in the case of temporary permits where a route happens to be an inter-region route. As, however, the fee realised by