Transport Authorities and the Grant of Permits: Sections 67 to 80

Permits are granted by a two tier administration the Act builds for the purpose: the State Transport Authority coordinating from the top, the Regional Transport Authorities deciding on the ground, and the State Government steering both through published directions. Section 80 sets the modern grant philosophy: applications may be made at any time and shall not ordinarily be refused, with reasons and a hearing guarding every refusal.

1. The authorities: sections 67 and 68

• Constitution, section 68: the State Government constitutes a State Transport Authority and Regional Transport Authorities for its regions, each a chairman with specified experience and members, and no member may hold a financial interest in any transport undertaking.
• The STA's role: it coordinates and regulates the RTAs' work, performs their functions where a region has none, resolves disputes between regions and issues directions binding on the RTAs.
• State directions, section 67: the Government may, by gazetted directions after publication and hearing of affected interests, steer the authorities on fares and freights, restrictions on long distance goods traffic and matters flowing from inter governmental agreements; the 2019 amendment added scheme making space for shared mobility and last mile services under section 67(3).
• Delegation and procedure follow the rules, with quorum, meetings and the authorities' quasi judicial character shaped by decades of case law: permit granting is an administrative function performed judicially, on relevant considerations and with reasons.

Figure 1: The permit administration

2. The application and the grant

• Where to apply, section 69: to the RTA of the region where the vehicle is proposed to be used; routes crossing regions go to the region of the major portion, the region where the vehicle is kept deciding where the portions are about equal, and inter State routes follow the agreements and countersignature provisions.
• What the authority weighs: for stage carriages, the route, timetable, trips and the interests of the travelling public; for contract and goods carriages, the areas, fares, cargo and safety considerations their sections list.
• Preferences and reservations the Act specifies, for State undertakings, cooperatives and ex servicemen among others, operate at the grant stage.
• Form and completeness, section 85: the permit must be complete in itself, carrying its conditions on its face.

Figure 2: The life of an application

3. The section 80 philosophy

Figure 3: Grant as the rule, refusal the exception

• Any time, and not ordinarily refused: applications for permits may be made at any time, and an application for a stage carriage, contract carriage or goods carriage permit shall not ordinarily be refused, the 1988 Act's liberalisation of an older restrictive regime.
• Summary refusal survives only where granting would exceed a limit fixed for stage or contract carriages for the region or route.
• Reasons and hearing: no refusal without giving the applicant written reasons and an opportunity of being heard.
• Variations that add a new route or area are treated as new applications, with the modest route extension limits the Act sets, and authorities may replace permits with fresh ones in proper cases.
• Appeal and revision: section 89 carries aggrieved persons to the State Transport Appellate Tribunal, headed by a judicial officer, and section 90 adds its revisional jurisdiction; section 94 bars the civil court from permit questions.

4. Quick Revision

1. Send the application to the right region.
2. Decide on relevant considerations, with reasons.
3. Refuse only within section 80's narrow room.
4. Treat route additions as fresh applications.
5. Channel grievances to the STAT, not the civil court.

5. Frequently Asked Questions

Is permit granting an administrative or quasi judicial function?

Both descriptions appear in the cases, and the reconciliation is functional. The grant of a permit allocates opportunity among competing applicants against statutory criteria, so the authority must act on relevant considerations, disclose its mind through reasons, hear those the statute entitles, and keep free of bias and dictation; in that sense it acts quasi judicially, and certiorari lies against its orders. At the same time the function serves transport policy, and the State's section 67 directions may lawfully steer it on matters like fares, which a purely judicial body could not be directed on. The working rule for an answer: policy enters through the statute and published directions, while the individual decision must still be made fairly, on the record, by the authority itself, and the appellate tribunal reviews it on both counts.

Can a State cap the number of permits on a route today?

Within the statute's own narrow doors. The 1988 Act dismantled the old needs based refusals, and section 80 permits summary refusal only where a limit lawfully fixed for stage or contract carriages would be exceeded; the provision for capping stage carriages in large cities, and the nationalisation schemes that reserve routes to State undertakings, are the statute's recognised instruments of numerical control. Outside them, refusing permits to protect existing operators from competition is the very policy the Act abandoned, and courts have struck down disguised quota systems. The contemporary pressure runs the other way, through schemes for app based and shared mobility, which license new operation models rather than ration the old ones.

What happens when two States disagree over an inter State route?

The Act forces coordination. Inter State routes run on permits granted by one State and countersigned by the other under their reciprocal agreement, which fixes the number of services each side may run; proposals and modifications of such agreements are published and heard, and a State cannot unilaterally choke an agreed corridor by refusing countersignatures that the agreement contemplates. Disputes have historically been fought through the appellate and writ jurisdictions, with courts enforcing the agreements' terms against both licensing authorities and their governments. The 2019 framework adds a Central lever, section 88A schemes for inter State transport, which can organise corridors nationally where bilateral machinery stalls, a shift from negotiated federalism to framework federalism in transport.

6. Related Topics and Provisions

• Necessity of permits: section 66
• Stage, contract and goods carriage permits
• Permit duration, transfer and cancellation
• Tourist and national permits: section 88
• Nationalisation of routes and State undertakings
• Appeals and the State Transport Appellate Tribunal