P. Kesava Rao, Lorry Owner vs State Transport Authority, A.P.

Channappa Reddy

The petitioners in these several W. Ps. are owners of Public Carriers with permits to ply the vehicles in the area familiarly known as the Andhra area of the State of A. P. They question a notification issued by the State Transport Authority in exercise of the powers conferred by Rule 459 of the A. P. Motor Vehicles Rule. 1964 read with S. 79 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939. By this notification all previous notifications on the subject were superseded and the maximum permissible laden weight of goods vehicles plying on roads in the State of A. P. was fixed at 12 tonnes in the case of roads other than National Highways in the Andhra area while no such restriction was imposed in the case of roads other then National Highways in the Telangana area of the State of A. P. There was also no restriction in the case of National Highways whether it was in the Andhra area or in the Telangana area. The petitioners complain that the notification is discriminatory and there is no basis whatever for making a distinction between vehicles plying on roads in the Andhra area and vehicles plying on roads in the Telangana area. The Respondents filed a counter affidavit in which the discrimination was sought to be justified by the following statement :--

The National Highways and also the other roads in the Telangana area are wide and strong enough to permit the vehicles to carry the registered Laden Weight. The roads in the Andhra area other than the National Highways are normally narrow and at many places weak, and it considered not safe to allow the vehicles to carry more than 12 Metric tonnes on these roads.

As the statement appeared to be of a very vague and general character and as no material was placed before me to justify the distinction on the basis of the opinion of experts regarding the condition of the roads, I adjouned the case several times to enable the learned Govt. Pleader to produce the necessary records. An additional counter Affidavit has now been filed and certain files have also been produced before me. In the additional counter affidavit the following statements relevant to the question at issue were made.

It is clear from the reports of the Chief Engineer, Highways submitted from time to time that Non-National Highways, in Andhra region are narrow and week and also the culverts and bridges. The road crust is not sufficiently thick. He has clearly stated that it is not possible to allow 15 tones load an these roads until the road crust and culverts are strengthened. In fact after the issue of G.O. Ms No. 731, dt. 22-2-1966, permitting 12 tonnes weight on non-national highways, the Government have again examined the position and have come to the conclusion that it is not safe even to allow 12 tonnes weight on these roads and issued Memo No. 2935 dt. 31-11-1968, that the orders issued on 22-2-66 are cancelled and the orders issued on 22-6-62 as modified by the orders issued on 9-9-63 restricting the weight to 9� tonnes on these roads shall continue with immediate effect. But as the resolution of the State Transport Authority dt. 4-3-1966 was given effect to and no resolution was again passed in pursuance of the Govt. Memo dt. 30-11-68, the vehicles with 12 tonnes weight are allowed so far on non-national Highways in Andhra region. At stated above the restrictions are imposed basing on the expert opinion of the Roads and Buildings department and all the vehicles to whichever region and State they belong and by whichever authority the permits are issued have to observe these weight restrictions while plying on non-national Highways in the Andhra region. The plea of the petitioners that the roads in Telangana region are inferior when compared to those in Andhra region is not correct. It may be that there are not many non-national roads in Telangana region. But they are sufficiently strong to bear 15 tones load. There are many non-national Highways in Andhra Region. It may be relevant for me to state that the number of Public Carriers registered in all the Districts of Telangana together excluding the City of Hyderabad are not as many as in one district of Krishna or Guntur. The lorry traffic potential on the non-national Highways in Telangana region is very meagre when compared to the lorry traffic potential on non-national highways in Andhra region specially in the Coastal Andhra Districts from which area many of the W. Ps come. The wear and tear to the roads due to the lorry traffic in that region is heavy and if 15 tounes weight of lorries, where the lorry traffic is so heavy, are premitted the roads whose crust is not sufficiently thick cannot bear the some. This also is a very relevant circumstance to be taken into consideration. The discrimination pleaded by the petitioner is without basis. The conditions of non-national Highways in the Andhra region as already stated does not permit carrying 15 tonnes load. The roads of Telangann and that region are not similar. The lorry traffic potential in that region is very heavy, when compared to Telangana region where it is meagre. The geographical classification made having regard to the conditions of the road and the traffic potential in the different regions is perfectly reasonable.

Though a reference was made in the additional counter affidavit to "the reports of the Chief Engineer submitted from time to time" the material placed before me consists only of (1) the proceedings of a meeting of the Chief Engineer, Roads & Buildings, the Transport Commissioners, the Deputy and Asst. Secretaries to Government held on 26-2-1972 (2) a letter from the Chief Engineer to the Transport Commissioner dt. 9-10-72; (3) A letter dt. 7-1-72 from the Chief Engineer to the Secretary to Govt., Home Department; (4) the proceeding of the State Transport Advisory Committee, dt. 14-8-1972 and (5) letter dt. 20-12-1972 from the Chief Engineer to the Transport Commissioner. I will presently examine this material to find out whether there is any basis for the distinction made between the roads in the Telangana region and the roads in the Andhra region.

Prior to 1956, that is to say before the formation of the State of A. P., the position was there was no restriction on maximum permissible Laden Weight on goods vehicles plying in the Telangana area.

While the maximum permissible Laden weight was 9� tonnes in the case of goods vehicles plying on roads in the Andhra area, the State Transport Advisory Committee at its meeting held on 4-9-1961 recommended that there should be no restriction on maximum, permissible laden weight on vehicles plying on national high ways throughout the State and that vehicles may be allowed to carry loads according to the registered laden weight. G.O. Ms. No. 575, dt. 22-2-1962 was accordingly issued and in turn the State Transport Authority issued instructions to Regional Transport Officers in the Andhra area that there was no restriction on permissible laden weight in the case of vehicles plying on the National Highways. At that stage the C.E., Highways, Hyderabad pointed that Highway No. 4 a National Highway, contained some dangerous and unsound bridges and that in the case of National Highway No. 4, the maximum laden weight should be restricted to 9 1/2 tonnes. The Govt. accepted the recommendation of the C.E. and issued a Memo No. 1508 dt. 9-9-63 in pursuance of which the State Transport Authority passed a resolution dt. 17-12-62 restricting the maximum Laden Weight on vehicles plying on National Highway No. 4 to 9 1/2 tonnes. While so, representations appear to have been made to the Govt. by owners of public carriers playing their vehicles on roads in the Andhra area. The Govt. by G.O.Rt 731, dt. 22-2-66 decided to remove restrictions on maximum laden weight on public carriers plying on all National Highways in the State and to restrict the Maximum Laden weight to 12 tonnes in the case of vehicles plying on all other roads in the State. The G.O. may be usefully extracted here and it is as follows:--

Home (Transport-I) Department

G.O.Rt. No. 731

Dt: 22-2-66

Memo No. 1508/63-4, Home (Tr.I) Dept., dt. 9-9-63.

ORDER

At the meeting held in the Chambers of Chief Minister on 24-11-65 it has been decided amongst other things that goods vehicles may be allowed to ply with the registered laden weight on all the National Highways within the State including National Highway No. 4 and permission be accorded to the goods vehicles upto a limit of 12 tonnes load to ply on all the other roads of the State.

Accordingly and in supercession of the orders contained in the Memo cited Govt. hereby direct that goods vehicles be allowed to ply with the Registered Laden Weight on all the national highways within the State including National Highway No. 4 goods vehicles carrying 12 tonnes load are also permitted to ply on all the other roads in the State.

The Transport Commissioner, and the C E (R & B) are requested to take necessary action in the matter in the light of the orders contained in para 2 above.

(By order and in the name of the Governor of A P.,) T.N. Capoor, Dy. Secretary to Govt.

Pursuant to G.O.Rt. No. 731 the State Transport Authority issued the impugned notification which is as follows;

ORDER

In exercise of the powers conferred by the rule 459 of the A.P. Motor Vehicles Rules, 1964 read with Sec. 79 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 and in supercession of the resolution of the State Transport Authority, A.P., in items I to 3 referred to in the subject the State Transport Authority A.P. hereby directs that the maximum permit Laden Weight of goods vehicle having not more than two axles on roads in Andhra and Teiangana areas of the State of A.P. shall be as follows: -

Andhra Area

On roads other than National Highways .. 12 tonnes.

On National Highways .. No restriction i.e.

RLW will be equal to RLW of the vehicle. Telangana area:

On all roads No restriction i.e.

RLW will be equal to RLW of the vehicle.

It will be noticed at once that although the State Transport Authority''s Notification was stated to be in pursuance of G.O.Rt. No. 731, it made a distinction between non-national high ways in the Andhra area and non-national highways in the Telangana area while G.O.Rt. No. 731 made no such distinction and was applicable to all non-national highways throughout the State, The learned Govt. Pleader urged that though the expression used in the G.O. was "all the other roads in the State", the Govt. had in mind the roads in the Andhra area only and that it was to vehicles plying on those roads only that the restriction regarding maximum permissible laden weight was to be applicable There does not appear to be any basis for the argument, but assuming that the Government too intended to draw a distinction between the roads in the Andhra area and the roads in the Telangana area, the question still remains whether there is any reasonable basis for such a classification. Now the reasons for the classification of non-national highways into those of the Andhra area and those of the Telangana area, as stated in the counter affidavits filed on behalf of the respondents, are that the roads in the Andhra area, the culverts and the bridges, are narrow and weak, that the traffic along the roads is heavy and that the condition of the roads is not such as to permit the passage of vehicles of 15 tonnes load, whereas the roads in the Telangana area are not weak and narrow, the traffic is light and the roads are capable of withstanding the passage of vehicles of 15 tonnes load. It may easily be seen that the statements in the counter affidavits are vague and board generalisation that all the roads in the 12 districts of the Andhra area being lumped together as if the condition of all the roads and the traffic on those roads were the same in all the 12 districts; similarly all the roads in the nine districts of the Telangana area are lumped together as if the condition of all the roads and the traffic on those roads are the same I do not think that there is any warrant for these generalisations. It is quite well known that the lorry traffic in the Andhra Districts other than Guntur" and Krishna particularly in the Districts of Anacthapur, Cuddapah, Chittor, Kurnool, Srikakulam and the upland taluks of Nellore, Ongole, Guntur and the two Godavari Districts is not much heavier than the lorry traffic in most of the Telangana districts. It cannot also be seriously disputed that the bearing capacity of the soil in areas other than the delta districts is much the same as the bearing capacity of the soil in Telangana districts. In fact, at one stage of the argument the learned Govt. Pleader frankly stated that when the State Transport Authority and the Govt. referred to the condition of the roads in the Andhra area they appear to have had in mind the roads in the delta districts and the roads in the rest of the Andhra area. It is also apparent from the records produced before the by the respondents I will presently point out that no efforts appears to have been made at any time to make a survey of the conditions of the reads in the various districts for the purpose of fixing the maximum laden Weight of the vehicles. No details, no facts and no figures are given in the affidavits or in the records produced before me by the respondents. All that we have is the broad generalisation to which I have already referred. There in nothing to indicate that even a sample survey of the conditions of roads in the various districts was ever undertaken, I will now refer to the records on which the learned Govt. Pleader placed reliance.

One striking feature of the records placed before me is that not one of them is of a date prior to the issue of G.O. Rr. No. 731, and the notification issued by the State Transport Authority. Some of the documents placed before me have come into existence subsequent to the filing of the W.P. though I do not propose to attach less weight to those documents for that reason.

The 1st document is the proceedings of a Meeting of the Chief Engineer, R & B, the Transport Commissioner and the Dy. and Asst. Secretaries to Govt., held on 26-2 70. The proceedings referred to a question raised by the Krishna District Lorry Owners Association in regard to the maximum Laden weight. The Chief Engineer, R & B explained that heavy loads had to be prohibited on certain national and State Highways due to (1) weak culverts (2) weak bridges (3) insufficient metal content and crust of roads. The C. E. pointed out that some roads had been improved and that there could be no objection to permit loads upto 15 tonnes on those roads. The roads mentioned by him were the Vijayawada Masulipatnam road and the Anakapalli-Chittivalasa road. In regard to some other roads the C.E. pointed out that loads beyond 12 tonnes capacity could not be permitted on those roads at present. The roads which he mentioned were Vijayawada-Kothajudem. Guntur-Nagarjunasagar, Guntur-NandyaL Chittoor-Tirupathi, Vijayawada-Narapui, Nellore-Kurnool, Jaggampet-Kakinada and Chittoor-Naidupet roads. These proceeding do not indicate that any general survey of the conditions of the roads in all the Andhra Districts was made. It only shows that in respect of certain roads which were expressly mentioned in the representation of the Krishna District Lorry owners Association the condition of the roads was stated to be satisfactory or unsatisfactory as the case was. Regarding the rest of the roads in the Andhra area nothing was said. Of the roads mentioned in the representation the Vijayawada-Masulipatnam and the Anakapalii-Chittivalasa roads were stated to be in a condition which would permit the plying of vehicles with loads upto 15 tonnes. The proceedings, therefore, do not justify the generalisation contained in the affidavits and implicit in the notification of the State Transport Authority.

The next document on which reliance was placed by the learned Govt. Pleader was the letter dt. 9-10-1971 from the C.E. to the Transport Commissioner. This letter was in reply to a letter of the Transport Commissioner regarding the representation of the Krishna District Lorry Owners'' Association to treat the Nardupet-Chittor Road as a National Highway since it was the road used by vehicles going from Vijayawada to the States of Tamil Nadu, Mysore and Kerala. The C.E. in his letter stated that it was not possible to allow 15 tonnes loads until the road crust and culverts were strengthened. It is seen that this letter relates only to a single road.

The 3rd document relied upon by the Govt. Pleader was a letter from the C.E. to Secretary to Govt. Home (Transport, J) Dept., in which the C.E. generally stated that it was not possible to allow traffic loads of 15 tonnes on all the roads other than National Highways as the roads were not strong enough due to inadequacy of road crust The C.E. estimated the cost strengthening the road crust and the culverts at Rs. 10 crores per year for a period of 5 years. It was also mentioned that as a special case lorries with 15 tonnes loads could be permitted on the Vijayawada Musulpatnam road and Anakapalli-Chittivalasa road. This letter again does not furnish any particulars of the other roads and does not even state whether any general survey was made of the condition of the roads in the State. It does not state that there is any difference between the condition of the roads, in the Andhra area and the condition of the roads in the Telangana area In fact, from a reading of the letter it looks as if all the State High ways are weak and the view of the C.E. was that only 12 tonnes should be allowed on all State Highways.

The 4th document is the proceeding of the State Transport Advisory Committee at its meeting on 14-8-72. The Proceeding shows that one of the members raised the question of discrimination between the permitted Laden Weight on roads in the Telangana area and the permitted Laden Weight on roads in the Andhra area and that it was explained to him that there was no discrimination as such and that loads were allowed depending on the condition of the roads. The Advisory Committee resolved that the owners of vehicles who were prepared to pay an amount of Rs. 250/- per quarter in addition to the quarterly tax could be permitted to carry load equal to registered Laden Weight on the State Highways in the Andhra area and that this amount should be credited to the State Road Fund and set apart for the maintenance of the State High ways in the Andhra area. This proceeding again does not through any light on the actual condition of the roads throughout the Andhra area. It is based on the same generalisation as found in the counter affidavits.

The last document is a letter dt. 21-12-72 from the C.E. to the Transport Commissioner pursuant to an enquiry made by the Transport Commissioner about this very W.P.

In fact, the letter was written after the W.P. had become partheard. The letter is as follows: --

With reference to your letter cited. I have to state that even from. 1953 there are no load restrictions on the roads of Telangana area and 15 tonnes R.L.W. has been admitted mainly due to the fact that the soils in that area are such that they can take required safe bearing capacity and also that the traffic volume is Comparative by less. But in the case of roads in Andhra area the permissible load in respect of National Highway is R.L.W. and 91/2 tonnes in case of State Roads from 1953. But this load was increased to 12 tonnes in 1966 and same is being allowed now also. The restriction on the State roads is due to soils of proof bearing capacity with which the embankments have been formed, inadequate roadcrust and due to heavy volumes of traffic. Unless the road crust is strengthened it will not be possible to permit further loading on the roads in Andhra area.

The letter of the CE contains the same generalisation to which I have been referring earlier. There is no distinction between district and district or one road and another All the roads in the Andhra area lumped together as if the soils conditions thoughout the area are the same and the volume of traffic is also the same. On the face of it is difficult to accept such a generalisation. The Chief Engineer does not refer to any survey or even a sample survey of the roads made by any authority to justify a distinction between the roads in the Andhra area and the roads in the Telangana area. The letter however, discloses the true reason for the distinction made by the State Transport Authority between the roads in the Telangana area and the roads in the Andhra area. The distinction is this : Even from 1953 heavy loads of 15 tonnes were being permitted on the Telangana roads while that was not the case in the case of roads in the Andhra area. That distinction was maintained even after the State of A.P. was formed. The distinction was not based on the difference in conditions of roads but based simply on the fact that different Laden Weights were permitted in the two areas before the new State was formed. The present attempt to justify the distinction on the ground that the roads in the Telangana area have stronger bearing capacity is a clear after thought and not based on any scientific survey of the roads. As I pointed out earlier it is common knowledge that soil condition in the Andhra districts and the volume of traffic in the Andhra Districts vary largely from district to district. Some of the Andhra districts undoubtedly have the same soil conditions and volume of traffic as the Telangana districts. No one, however, undertook the survey of the roads to justify the distinction. I have, therefore, no doubt that the distinction made by the State Transport Authority cannot be justified on the grounds mentioned in the counter affidavit. In the result, I allow the W.Ps and direct the respondents to delete the clause relating to permitted Laden Weight on the State Highways in their permits. It will, of course, be open to the Govt., and the State Transport to impose such restrictions as they think fit in regard to the particular roads if they are satisfied that the roads are not capable of withstanding the full registered Laden Weight. The W. Ps. are allowed as indicated and there will be no order regarding costs. Advocate''s fee Rs. 100/- in each.