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Showing contexts for: NET compulsory in S.H. Motor Transport Company vs The State Transport Authority on 4 December, 1980Matching Fragments
(a) the advantages offered to the public, trade and industry by the development of road transport;
(b) the desirability of co-ordinating any form of road transport with any other form of transport;
(c) the desirability of extending and improving the facilities for road transport in any area and of providing an efficient and economical system of road transport service therein.
20. The constitution of the Road Transport Corporation is provided for in Section 5. The Chairman of the Corporation can be removed by the State Government and this power is conferred by Section 2 and Advisory Council may be established by the State Government under Section 17. The general duties of the Corporation are indicated in Section 18. . These duties, although material, cannot be enforced by any directive of the Court. It has been laid down that, it shall be the general duty of such Corporation to exercise its powers progressively to provide or secure or promote the provision of an efficient, adequate, economical and properly co-ordinate system or road transport service in the State or part of the State for which it is established and in any extended area. The definition of "extended area" is to be found in Section 2(e). The powers of the Corporation are indicated in Section 19. Section 20 contains special provisions providing for the extension of the operation of the road transport service of a Corporation to areas within another state. It is clear that the procedure enjoined on the Corporation by this provision must have been undergone before the application was made by the 4th respondents for the inter-State permit to the State Transport Authority on the Nagpur-Indore route. If Section 20 is analysed, it provides in the first place, for the Corporation if it desires to extend the operation of its road transport service to any route or area situated within another state to negotiate with that other State. Such negotiations, however, can be undertaken only after obtaining the permission of the State Government. It, as a result of such negotiations the approval of the other State Government is secured, then, a scheme can be prepared by the Corporation for the extension and this scheme also has to be submitted to the other State Government for its consent. When the scheme is expressly sanctioned by the other Government, it would become effective after sanction by the Government of the State which has established the Corporation. It is only thereafter that it becomes competent for the Corporation to extend the operation of its road transport service to the said route or area, and for this purpose it will have to make an application to the State Transport Authority. We have already seen how under the Motor Vehicles Act, that application will receive preferential treatment after the introduction of Section 47(1H) by Act 47 of 1978. Before, however, this application could be made, it is pertinent to point out that almost each step is with the approval of the State Government and the State Government does not rest content only with general control over the Corporation envisaged by the other provisions of this Act. In the matter of operating over an extended area, which may transgrass into another state, specific provisions are to be found in the Road Transport Corporation Act, providing for specific permission being sought and approval being granted. There are a number of other provisions in the said Act indicative of overall supervision, almost amounting to control by the State Government over the Road Transport Corporation. Section 30 is a provision for disposal of its net profits and after providing for various compulsory disbursements, if there is a remaineded it has to be made over to the State Government for the purpose of road development an object intimately connected with transport vehicles. 'Section 33 contains provisions for accounts and audit, and the accounts of the Corporation as certified by the Controller and Auditor-General of India or any person appointed by him in that behalf together with the audit report is to be annually forwarded to the State Government and the State Government is further enjoined to cause the some to be placed before the Legislature of the State. Section 34 gives specific powers to the State Government to give general instructions which are to be followed by the Corporation and these may include directions relating to the recruitment, conditions of service and training of its employee, wages to be paid to the employees, reserves to be maintained by it, disposal of its profits pr stocks. These are mandatory instructions and cannot be departed from, except with the previous permission of the State Government. Under Section 35, from time to time returns, statistics, accounts and other information with respect to its property or activities has to be furnished by the Corporation to the State Government. At the end of each financial year, the Corporation has to submit to the Central and the State Governments a report on the exercise and performance by it of its powers and duties under the Act during the year as also of its policy and programme. The State Government is enjoined by Sub-section (3) of Section 35 to cause the said annual report to be laid before the State Legislature, The State Government has been given under Section 36, 37 and 38 the power to order inquiries, the power to control a part of the undertaking of a Corporation and finally the power to supercede the Corporation. However, before the power of supersession can be exercised, which may be on the basis that the Corporation is unable to perform or has persistently made default in the performance of its duties imposed on it or has exceeded or abused its powers, the State Government is required to obtain the previous approval of the Central Government. Section 44 contains the usual power to make rules. Leaving aside Section 20 for the time being, which depicts the detailed steps for extending operations beyond the limit of a particular State to another State, even the other provisions indicate that there is almost total supervision of the State Government over the activities of the Corporation extending from the time of creation to the possible ultimate supersession. These provisions will ensure that the State Government can prod the Corporation in a proper direction towards the performance of its duties as indicated by Section 3. These directions are mandatory and the extent to which the Corporation has achieved its objectives is presented annually to the Government in the form of annual reports, which reports are also to be laid before the Legislature. It is in this background that one has now to consider the two points vis-a-vis the object of the Legislation.