The Rest of the Motor Vehicles Act III: Permits and State Undertakings

Two chapters of the Act in one

Chapter V, sections 66 to 96, controls transport vehicles: nobody may carry passengers or goods for hire or reward without a permit. Chapter VI, sections 97 to 108, is the special law of State transport undertakings, under which a State may take a route or an area for its own buses.

Chapter V: permits

Section 66: the obligation. No owner of a motor vehicle shall use, or permit the use of, the vehicle as a transport vehicle in any public place, whether or not it is actually carrying passengers or goods, except in accordance with the conditions of a permit granted or countersigned by a Regional or State Transport Authority or a prescribed authority. Provisos let a stage carriage permit authorise use as a contract carriage, and in stated circumstances as a goods carriage.

• Section 66A. National Transportation Policy, to be developed and implemented by the Central Government.
• Section 66B. No bar against permit holders applying for and holding licences under schemes.
• Section 67. Power of the State Government to control road transport.
• Section 68. Transport Authorities: the State Transport Authority and Regional Transport Authorities.

Applying and granting.

• Section 69. General provision as to applications for permits.
• Sections 70 to 72. Stage carriage permits: application, the Regional Transport Authority's procedure, and grant.
• Sections 73 and 74. Contract carriage permits: application and grant.
• Section 75. Scheme for the renting of motor cabs, the scheme referred to in section 3(1).
• Section 76. Private service vehicle permits.
• Sections 77 to 79. Goods carriage permits: application, consideration and grant.
• Section 80. Procedure in applying for and granting permits.

Living with a permit.

• Section 81. Duration and renewal.
• Section 82. Transfer of a permit.
• Section 83. Replacement of vehicles.
• Section 84. General conditions attaching to all permits.
• Section 85. General form of permits.
• Section 86. Cancellation and suspension of permits.
• Section 87. Temporary permits.
• Section 88. Validation of permits for use outside the region in which granted, including national and inter-State permits.
• Section 88A. Power of the Central Government to make schemes for national, multimodal and inter-State transport of passengers and goods.

Disputes, drivers and jurisdiction.

• Sections 89 and 90. Appeals and revision.
• Section 91. Restriction of hours of work of drivers.
• Section 92. Voidance of contracts restrictive of liability.
• Section 93. An agent, canvasser or aggregator must obtain a licence.
• Section 94. Bar on jurisdiction of civil courts over matters the Transport Authorities may decide.
• Sections 95 and 96. Rules by the State Government.

Two of these matter directly to this subject. Section 91 limits driving hours, and a breach of it is the sort of fact on which negligence against an employer is built. Section 92 voids a contract by which a passenger or goods owner purports to give up the liability of the carrier, which is why a bus ticket cannot exclude liability for injury.