In Brief
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation challenged the grant of a temporary permit to a private bus operator (Baby P.P.) to run services on a route that overlapped a notified Government monopoly route beyond permitted limits. The Supreme Court held that once a transport scheme is published for a notified route, private operators are excluded except as expressly permitted by the scheme. Temporary permits under Section 104 of the Motor Vehicles Act must comply with scheme limits. Here, the respondent sought a 13 km overlap on a notified route, exceeding the 5 km or 5% limit allowed only for 'intersection' (cutting across), not for operating on the same line. Since the State Transport Undertaking was already running 452 buses daily on the disputed route, the temporary permit was unlawful and was set aside.
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