The mode of publication of applications for permits under Section 57(3) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, is to be prescribed by rules, and the State Government has the power to amend such rules.

A. N. Varma, J.

1. The petitioner, as existing operator of the route in question, assails the validity of an amendment made in Rule 48 of the Motor Vehicles Rules, 1940. The relief claimed is that the impugned notification amending Rule 48 be quashed and the Regional Transport Authority, Dehradun be directed not to give effect to the same.

2. First, a glance at the relevant statutory provisions. Rule 48, as it stood prior to its amendment, read as follows :

"48. Applications-Publication of-(a) In addition to the requirements of sub-section (3) of Section 57 of the Act, upon receipt of an application for a stage carriage permit or public carrier's permit the Secretary of the Regional Transport Authority or of the State Transport Authority, as the case may be, shall post a copy of the application, together with the notice of the date before which representation may be submitted and of the date appointed for consideration on a suitable notice board situated on the premises of the Authority. b) It shall be sufficient compliance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 57 of the Act, if the particulars specified in the sub-section, are published in the Uttar Pradesh Gazette, not less than fifteen days before the date appointed for the receipt of representation. (c) If upon publication of particulars of an application in respect of a stage carriage permit or of a public carrier's permit as aforesaid no representation is received in connection therewith within the specified period, the application may, if the Chairman so directs be submitted for the decision of the Authority by procedure by circulation."

By the Uttar Pradesh Motor Vehicles (Forty-eight Amendment) Rules, 1987 which came into force on August 13, 1987, the date on which the notification by which the rules were amended was published, clause (b) of Rule 48 was substituted by the follows :-

"(b) It shall be sufficient compliance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 57 of the Act, if (i) the particulars specified in the said sub-section, are published in two Hindi daily newspapers having wide circulation throughout Uttar Pradesh not less than 15 days before the date appointed for the receipt of the representation ; (ii) the information regarding the publication of the applications or permit :- (A) made to the State Transport Authority, are published in at least one daily newspaper in the area of each Regional Transport Authority having wide circulation in it, and (B) made to a Regional Transport Authority are published in at least one daily newspaper having wide circulation in it. (iii) the notice regarding information of publication of particulars of the applications for permit is exhibited on the notice board of the office of the Secretaries of the State Transport Authority and all the Regional Transport Authorities and ; (iv) the copies of the newspapers referred to in sub-clause (i) are made available in the office of the Secretaries of the State Transport Authority and all the Regional Transport Authorities for inspection free of cost, during office hours on each working day ".

3. The contention of Sri A. D. Saunders, appearing for the petitioner, was that the combined effect of sub-section (3) of Section 57 and clause (b), as it stood prior to its substitution, was that the publication of the applications in the Uttar Pradesh Gazette for the grant of permits under Section 57 was mandatory and inasmuch as the impugned notification amending clause (b) of the Rule 48 provides for doing away with the mandatory requirement and substitutes it by publication in newspapers, the same must be held to be beyond the rule making powers conferred on the State Government under Section 68.

4. We are unable to agree. So far as sub-section (3) of Section 57 is concerned, it does not expressly or by implication provide that the applications or the date fixed for filing representations in connection therewith and the time and place at which the applications an