Pendency Of Application For Permanent Permit Not A Ground To Get Temporary Permit: Kerala HC

Temporary permit cannot be an indirect route to get a permanent permit, the court said.

The Kerala High Court has clarified that merely because an application for permanent permit (not renewal) is pending consideration, temporary permit cannot be granted.

In the instant case, an application was made by a bus operator before the Secretary of the Regional Transport Authority for grant of temporary permit for the route on the ground that having made an application for permanent permit, till permanent permit is not granted, temporary permit may be issued. The RTO had rejected the application.

But later, consequent to the direction by the high court to consider the application, temporary permit was granted.

Then the association of bus operators of the area approached the high court, contending that taking advantage of the above observations of this court, several persons have started preferring applications for permanent permits and then apply for temporary permits, which were being granted. They contended that it was not the legislative intent for the authority to grant temporary permits, as contained in Section 87 of the Act. But the writ petition preferred by the bus operators was dismissed by a single judge.

On appeal against this judgment, a bench comprising Chief Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh and Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V observed that for grant of temporary permit, the authorities are required to consider conditions as stipulated in Section 87 of the Act and only if one or the other of those conditions is satisfied, then for a limited period as stipulated in the said section, temporary permit can be granted.

The bench observed: “If we refer to Section 87(1)(d) of the Act, it clearly talks of grant of temporary permit pending application for renewal of permit. But, nowhere the section provides that where a person has made an application for permanent permit, pending grant thereof, temporary permit can be granted. The reason is obvious. Temporary permit cannot be an indirect route to get a permanent permit. Temporary permit can only be considered for grant on conditions as specified in Section 87 of the Act and not more.”

Read the Judgment here