U.P. State Road Transport Corporation Vs Kashmiri Lal Batra & Ors. (Supreme Court of India)
SC Clarifies: Private Bus Operators Cannot Ply on Notified Routes Under Inter-State Transport Agreements; Supreme Court Upholds Priority of State Transport Schemes Over Inter-State Permits; No Private Permits on Notified Routes, Even if Overlapping: SC Reaffirms Legal Position; SC: Inter-State Transport Agreements Cannot Override Nationalised Route Schemes; Private Bus Operators Barred from Notified Routes Despite Inter-State Agreements, Rules SC; SC Reaffirms Adarsh Travels Principle: Notified Routes Closed to Private Operators; Notified Routes Under MV Act Have Absolute Priority: SC Bars Private Inter-State Permits; SC: Liberalised Inter-State Permit Policy Cannot Override Notified Transport Schemes; Supreme Court Rejects Private Operators’ Claim on Overlapping Routes Between States; SC Rules Inter-State Reciprocal Agreements Cannot Confer Rights Beyond MV Act Schemes; Private Operators Cannot Ply on Routes Overlapping Notified Areas — SC Upholds Primacy of Chapter VI.
The Supreme Court held that private bus operators cannot be granted or countersigned inter-State permits where the proposed route overlaps a notified intra-State route reserved for the State undertaking.
The dispute arose under an inter-State reciprocal transport agreement between Madhya Pradesh & Uttar Pradesh u/s 88 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Following the alleged winding-up of the Madhya Pradesh SRTC, private operators obtained temporary permits from M.P. but the U.P. authorities refused countersignature. The High Court had directed both States to regularise such permits, prompting the present appeals by UPSRTC.
