TMI Blog1956 (9) TMI 65X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t, The New Prakash Transport Co. Ltd., as also another party, called the Navjivan Transport Service (not cited in this Court) applied for a similar permit on that route. On May 26, 1953, all the three applicants aforesaid were heard by the Regional Transport Authority of Amraoti, which is the third respondent in this Court, in connection with the permit applied for. Consideration of the several applications was postponed, but a resolution was passed to the effect that No one service should have monopoly on Buldana-Malkapur route. On March 30, 1954, another meeting of the Regional Transport Authority took place and the first respondent was granted the permit. The appellant's application was rejected on the ground that the police report was against it. The appellant preferred an appeal to the Appellate Authority (constituted under R. 73 of the Motor -Vehicles Act), Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur, which is the second respondent to this appeal. The appellant challenged the correctness of the police report against it and applied to the District Superintendent of Police personally to verify the facts stated in the first report on the basis of which the appellant's application for permi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e report had been subsequently modified by the District Superintendent of Police by the report dated May 13, 1954, which showed that the previous report was based on some misunderstanding. It was also stated that the report was actually read out to the parties by the Chairman while the appeal was being heard. The petition under Arts. 226 and 227 made, as aforesaid, by the first respondent was heard by a single Judge (Mr. Justice V. R. Sen) who by his orders dated December 13, 1954, discharged the rule with costs. In the course of his judgment the learned Judge after' referring in detail to the orders of the authorities under the Motor Vehicles Act, that is to say, the second and third respondents, observed that there was no substance in the contention that the procedure adopted by the Appellate Authority was opposed to the principles of natural justice and had operated to the prejudice of the first respondent; and that there was no error apparent on the face of the record. The learned Judge also pointed out that when -the report was brought to the notice of the first respondent, it did not indicate that it wished to controvert the report. The first respondent prefe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... made to the provisions of ss. 47, 48 and 64 of the Motor Vehicles Act read along with the relevant rules framed under s. 68 of the Act. On behalf of the respondents it was argued that it had no opportunity of studying the subsequent police report and of making submissions thereon with the result that there has been a failure of natural justice in the sense that the respondent had been deprived of a fair and full opportunity of being heard. Though the High Court on appeal did not base its decision on the other question, namely, whether there was any error apparent on the face of the record, it was sought to be argued that there was an error in the order of the second respondent in so far as it made reference to only the first report and read into it the maatter contained in the subsequent report. At the outset we may observe that, in our opinion, there is no substance in the second ground sought to be resuscitated in this Court by the learned counsel on behalf of the respondent. Error apparent on the face of the record in the context of this case must mean an assumption of facts which are not borne out by the record. We are not concerned with other grounds which may in the cont ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ers the appeal had been brought., an opportunity of being heard. Section 64 which creates the right of appeal does not in terms speak of a like opportunity being given to the persons against whom the appeal had been filed. But r. 73 framed by the Government in pursuance of its rule-making power conferred by s. 68, lays down that the authority to decide' an appeal against the orders of a Regional Transport Authority under s. 64 of the Act shall be the Chairman and two members of the Provincial Transport Authority. The rule further provides that on receipt of an appeal, the Chairman shall appoint the time and place for hearing the appeal and shall give not less than thirty days notice to the appellant, the original authority, and any other person interested in the appeal and on such appointed or adjourned date the Appellate Authority shall hear such persons as may appear and, after such further enquiry, if any, as it may deem necessary, confirm, vary, or set aside the order against which the appeal is preferred and make any consequential or incidental order that may be just or proper . It will. thus be seen that though the substantive section creating the right of appeal doe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re and in that sense the rules themselves must vary. The Regional Transport Authority is charged with the duty of granting or refusing a stage carriage permit, only to mention the matter with which we are immediately concerned. In that connection the statute requires that authority to have regard to the matters set forth in s. 47 of the Act, as already indicated. The police authority within whose local jurisdiction any part of the proposed route lies, has also been given the right to make representations. But the police report submitted to the Regional Transport Authority or to the Appellate Authority, if it requires the police authority to do so, is not intended to be anything more than an expression of opinion by an authority interested in the maintenance of law and order, with particular reference to the question as to whether any of the applicants for a permit had anything to its credit or discredit as supplier of transport facilities. Such a report is meant more for the use of the authority in making or refusing a grant than for the use of the several applicants or any one of them. In other words, it is in the nature of information supplied by the police in order to assist the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the appellant. In this connection it has also to be observed that the subsequent police report had said nothing directly against the first respondent which it would be interested in controverting. The subsequent police report had only withdrawn some of the adverse comments against the conduct of the appellant which had been found to have been made under a misunderstanding. But the subsequent report still contains some minor complaints against the appellant. Those matters were apparently considered by the Appellate Authority not to be so serious as to stand in the way of the appellant getting the permit, especially when that authority had previously decided upon the policy that monopoly of supplying transport facility should not be allowed to continue in favour of the first respondent. Hence, in our opinion, there was nothing in the rules requiring a copy of the police report to be furnished to any of the parties, nor was there any circumstance necessitating the adjournment of the hearing of the appeal, particularly when no request for such an adjournment had been made either by the first respondent or by any other party. At that time none of the parties appears to have made a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e must be no Malversation of any kind. There would be no decision within the meaning of the statute if there were anything of that sort done contrary to the essence of justice. But it appears to me to be perfectly consistent with reason, that the statute may have intentionally omitted to provide for form, because this is a, matter not of a kind requiring form, not of a kind requiring litigation at all, but requiring only that the parties should have an opportunity of submitting to the person by whose decision they are to be bound such considerations as in their judgment ought to be brought before him. When that is done, from the nature of the case no further proceeding as to summoning the parties, or as to doing anything of that kind which a judge might have to do, is necessary. Another leading case on the subject is the decision of the House of Lords in the well-known case of Board of Education v. Rice ([1911] A.C. 179,182). Their Lordships in that case had to discuss the duty of the Board of Education under s. 7 of the Education Act, 1902. Lord Loreburn, L.C., in the course of his speech referred to the provisions of the Act and made the following observations as to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the owner of the house affected by the closing order had been represented. But at the time the appeal was finally disposed of, there was no hearing of the appellant or his representative as in a court of law. The Court repelled the argument that the appellant had a right to be heard by the Local Government Board and to know the contents of the report made by the inspector who had held the public local inquiry. Rely Vingmainly upon the judgment of Lord Loreburn, L.C, in the case of Board of Education v. Rice (supra), the Court decided that the procedure indicated by the rules framed under the statute in question had been followed and that there was no other or further obligation on the Board to hear the appellant either personally or through his representative or counsel, because there was no indication in the statute to that effect. The matter was taken in appeal in Rex v. Local Government Board, Ex parte A rlidge ([1914] 1 K. B. 16o,), and the Court of Appeal by a majority (Vaughan Williams and Buckley, L.JJ., Hamilton, L.J. dissenting allowed the appeal holding that it was contrary to the principles of natural justice that the Board should have dismissed the appeal without discl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in good faith and fairly listen to both sides. Against the judgment of the majority of the Court quashing the determination of the appeal by the Board there was an appeal to the House of Lords. The House of Lords unanimously adopted the opinion of Hamilton, L.J. (later Lord Sumner), allowed the appeal and set aside the majority decision. [Vide Local Government Board v. Arlidge ([1915] A.C. 120, 132.)]. In the course of his speech Viscount Haldane, L.C., made the following observations:- My Lords, when the duty of deciding an appeal is imposed, those whose duty it is to decide it must act judicially. , They must deal with the question referred to them without bias, and they must give to each of the parties the opportunity of adequately presenting the case made. The decision must be come to in the spirit and with the sense of responsibility of a tribunal whose duty it is to mete out justice. But it does not follow that the procedure of every such tribunal must be the same. His Lordship adopted the dictum of Lord Loreburn, L.C., in the leading case of Board of Education v. Rice (supra). Lord Shaw in his speech made the following observations which are very ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and directed his name to be erased from the register. The Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the view of the dissenting Judge in the Court of first instance that there had been no due inquiry as required by s. 29 of the Medical Act, 1858. The Appeal Court set aside the majority decision of Viscount Caldecote, C.J., and Humphreys, J., who had held that the requirements of the law had been satisfied by adopting the judgment and decree of the Divorce Court. On appeal by the Medical Council to the House of Lords, the House unanimously agreed with the unanimous decision of the Appeal Court and held that the requirement of due inquiry enjoined by the Act creating the Tribunal had not been satisfied. Viscount Simon, L.C., examined the provisions of the Act and the relevant rules and pointed out that they require the practitioner proceeded against to state his case, and to produce the evidence in support of it. The Lord Chancellor in the course of his speech observed that the General Medical Council was not a judicial body in the ordinary sense, was master of its own procedure and was not bound by strict rules of evidence. It was bound to satisfy the requirements of the law and t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that if a person is to be deprived of his professional status, he must be heard and be given effective opportunity of meeting any allegation made against him on the question of his fitness to pursue his profession. If the tribunal constituted by the statute in question to decide about the fitness of an individual to pursue that profession, decides against him without giving him an opportunity of meeting any allegations against him bearing on his capacity or qualification for the profefession to which he claims admission, it has been held that it was improper for the tribunal acting in a quasi- judicial capacity to act to his prejudice upon evidence or adverse report without his having an opportunity of meeting such relevant allegations made against him. To that class belongs the case of R. v. Architects Registration Tribunal ( [1945] 2 A.E.R. 131). In that case the King's Bench Division issued an order of certiorari to, quash 117 the tribunal's decision refusing an application for registration as an architect. The cases of Leeson v. General Council of Medical Education and Registration ([1890] 43 Ch. D. 366), and Allinson v. General Council of Medical Education and Re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re examined in detail by a Bench of five Judges of this Court in the case of Veerappa Pillai v. Raman Raman Ltd. ([1952] S. C. R. 583). This Court examined elaborately the provisions of the Act vis-a-vis the authorities created by the Act to administer its provisions relating to the grant of stage carriage permits. It also examined how far the High Court exercising its special powers to issue writs under Art. 226 of the Constitution could interfere with the orders made by those authorities. In the course of its judgment this Court made the following observations at page 596, which are very relevant to the present purpose :- Thus we have before us a complete and precise scheme for regulating the issue of permits, providing what matters are to be taken into consideration as relevant, and prescribing appeals and revisions from subordinate bodies to higher authorities. The remedies for the redress of grievances or the correction of errors are found in the statute itself and it is to these remedies that resort must Generally be bad. Keeping in view the observations of this Court quoted above and the principles of natural justice discussed in the several authorities ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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