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1961-62--Guntur District 1962-63--Nellore and Chittor Districts 1963-64--Cuddapah and Kurnool Districts 1964-65--Ananthapur and East Godavari Districts 1965-66--Vishakhapatnam and Srikakulam Dis- tricts."
In the impugned schemes, however, the Corporation made an alteration in the order of the Districts successively to be taken up for nationalisation. It would be seen that after Guntur District which was neatly completed by the end ,of 1961 the next districts to be taken up during the 1962-63 would have been Nellore and Chittor Districts in that order and it was only thereafter that the District of Cuddapah and after it Kurnool would be taken up. That was the recommendation of the Anantharamakrishnan Committee and which had been accepted by the Road Transport Corporation as late as April, 1962 and it may be mentioned in this connection that the Vice-Chairman of the Road Transport Corporation was himself a member of the Anantharamakrishnan Committee. By its resolution dated, 4th May, 1962, the Road Transport Corporation decided that instead of the above order Kurnool, Nellore and Cuddapah Districts in that order would be chosen for nationalisation and in the three schemes which were formulated in pursuance of this Resolution the western half of Kurnool was selected as the area to be nationalised in the first instance.

(Yemniganpur is in the western part of the Kurnool District). He is the active supporter of the present Chief Minister. Shri C. Ram Bhopal son-in-law of the present Chief Minister also unsuccessfully contested from the Nandikothur Constituency in Kurnool District. (Nandikothur is also in the western part of Kurnool). The person who successfully opposed him Sri P. Venkatakrishna Reddy now M.L.A. is a partner in 'Venkata Krishna Bus Service Nandikothur. This firm owns 2 permits and they stand in the name of Jayaramayya who was the Election Agent of Sri Venkata Krishna Reddy. Two persons Sri Ganikhan and Sri Antony Reddy who are staunch supporters of the present Chief Minister Sri Sanjiva Reddy were selected as Congress candidates by the Parliamentary Board at Delhi when Sanjiva Reddy was the President of the Indian National Congress, were also defeated in their respective Constituencies. It was considered by one and all that leading transport operators among them, (the petitioners) were responsible for the defeat of these persons and this enraged the feelings of Shri Sanjiva Reddy against the operators in Kurnool District and particularly the operators whose routes lay in the western areas of the District and with a view to cause them loss and to ruin their business this nationalisation of transport in the western part of Kurnool was directed to be undertaken in spite of the Emergency and in spite of the incapacity of the Road Transport Corporation to fulfil their earlier commitments for want of buses. The undivided brothers of Sri T. Narayan, a transport operator, namely Sri Venkataswamy contested the Assembly seat against Sri Sanjiva Reddy in the Dhone Constituency from which he was returned and he refused to withdraw even though lots of pressure were brought on him. Sri Rajasekhara Reddy and Sri Vijayakumara Reddy sons of Sri P. Ranga Reddy, Minister in the previous Cabinet are also transport operators in the Kurnool District. It is known to every one that Sri P. Ranga Reddy is in the group opposed to Sri Sanjiva Reddy.

The conference, as stated earlier, addressed by the Chief Minister was on the 19th of April, 1962. This was follow-

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ed by the resolution of the Corporation of May 4, 1962. This ran:

.lm15 "The Corporation noted the discussion which took place in the office of the Chief Minister on 19th April, 1962, in regard to programme of nationalisation of Road Transport Services during the Third Five Year Plan period and resolved that during the Third Five Year Plan three more districts in the order mentioned could be nationalised, viz., Kurnool, Nellore and Cuddapah in view of difficult financial position........ Chief Executive Officer explained that as there is a depot at Kurnool and as Kurnool is contiguous to the nationalised districts, it would be easier to nationalise Kurnool rather Nellore district. The nationalisation could be extended to the Nellore district after Kurnool district is nationalised. The Corporation therefore resolved that Kurnool district could be taken up for nationalisation in preference to Nellore." In the counter-affidavit which the Corporation filed to, the writ petition the Chief Executive Officer after denying that the Corporation was actuated by mala fides in framing the three impugned schemes, stated that the acceptance by the Corporation of the recommendation of the Anantharamakrishnan Committee was tentative and that it could not fetter them from discharging its powers and duties under the statute. It gave the following reasons for the decision to nationalise Road Transport Services in a part of the Kurnool district in preference to other areas: (1) because there is a Government depot at Kurnool, (2) Kurnool is contiguous to the entire Telangana area which is rationalised and also contiguous to the nationalised area of Guntur. It also stated that the choice was made in the interest of the maintenance of service contiguity and coordination and it added that "the impending completion of the Rangapur Bridge over the river Krishna, which when completed would facilitate the operation of direct services from Hyderabad through Kurnoof to the areas beyond." Besides it asserted that the Corporation which was an autonomous statutory authority was vested with powers under the Road Transport Act and it was', therefore, malicious to allege that the decision by the Corporation to prepare the impugned schemes was either influenced by the, Chief Minister or was under a mandate from him and it asserted that in formulating the schemes the necessary opinion under s. 68-C was formed by itself.
It is also to be noticed that the Chief Minister in his statement to the Assembly stated that when he made an enquiry of the Corporation as to why they did not choose Kurnool as the next district, the officials of the Corporation had no answer to give. It is somewhat remarkable that the Corporation and its officials should have remained silent and tongue-tied notwithstanding that its Vice-Chairman was a member of the Anantharamakrishnan Committee and had as a member thereof considered the entire question in all its aspects and laid down (1) the criteria for determining the order of priority; and (2) by applying these tests had laid down the priorities among the districts and more than this, the entire body of the Corporation had considered the several recommendations of the Committee in their report and while rejecting some had accepted this particular recommendation regarding the order in which the districts should be taken up and this last one had happened within a month or so before the conference addressed by the Chief Minister. If in these circumstances the appellants allege that whatever views the Corporation entertained they were compelled to or gave effect to the wishes of the Chief Minister, it could not be said that the same is an unreasonable inference from facts. It is also somewhat remarkable that within a little over two weeks from this Conference by its resolution of May 4, 1962, the Corporation dropped Nellore altogether, a district which was contiguous to Guntur and proceeded to take up the nationalisation of the routes of the western part of the, Kurnool district and were able to find reasons for taking the step. It is also worthy of note that in the resolution of the 4th May, 1962, of the Cor- poration only one reason was given for preferring Kurnool to Nellore, namely, the existence of a depot at Kurnool because the other reason given, namely, that Kurnool was contiguous to an area of nationalised transport equally applied to Nellore and, in fact, this was one of the criteria on the basis of which the Anantharamakrishnan Committee itself decided the order of priority among the districts. As regards the depot at Kurnool which was one of the two reasons set out in the resolution for the choice of that district in the first instance, learned Counsel for the appellants submitted that this reason was one invented to justify the Corporation's action directed against them and to obviate the comment that the reason for the change was political and not for providing an adequate service for the area. He submitted that the so-called depot was merely a garage with a few repairing tools and not any full-fledged repairing workshop. None of the affidavits filed on behalf of the appellants, however, made any allegation regarding the nature of the facility afforded at this 'depot-and so we are not in a position to act merely on the arguments adduced to us at the bar. It has however to be noticed that the existence of this 'depot' at Kurnool escaped the notice of the Anantharamakrishnan Committee, who in their report have devoted some attention to the need for depots and the equipment these should possess and referred to certain deficiencies which they noticed in the depots which they inspected. The officials of the Corporation did not evi- dently bring this depot at Kurnool to the notice of the Com- mittee. Again, when in their Administration Report, the Corporation accepted the recommendations as regards the order in which the districts, should be nationalised, the existence of this depot at Kurnool seems also to have escap- ed the attention of the Corporation itself, as a factor to be taken into account in making the choice of the district. But we are basing no; conclusion on this feature.