Section 87: Temporary permits
Motor Vehicles Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide
Statutory Regulation
Legal Standard
Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1988
Motor Vehicles Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide
(1) A Regional Transport Authority and the State Transport Authority may without following the procedure laid down in section 80, grant permits, to be effective for a limited period which shall, not in any case exceed four months, to authorise the use of a transport vehicle temporarily
(a) for the conveyance of passengers on special occasions such as to and from fairs and religious gatherings, or (b) for the purposes of a seasonal business, or (c) to meet a particular temporary need, or (d) pending decision on an application for the renewal of a permit, and may attach to any such permit such condition as it may think fit: Provided that a Regional Transport Authority or, as the case may be, State Transport Authority may, in the case of goods carriages, under the circumstances of an exceptional nature, and for reasons to be recorded in writing, grant a permit for a period exceeding four months, but not exceeding one year.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), a temporary permit may be granted thereunder in respect of any route or area where
(i) no permit could be issued under section 72 or section 74 or section 76 or section 79 in respect of that route or area by reason of an order of a Court or other competent authority restraining the issue of the same, for a period not exceeding the period for which the issue of the permit has been so restrained; or
(ii) as a result of the suspension by a Court or other competent authority of the permit of any vehicle in respect of that route or area, there is no transport vehicle of the same class with a valid permit in respect of that route or area, or there is no adequate number of such vehicles in respect of that route or area, for a period not exceeding the period of such suspension: Provided that the number of transport vehicles in respect of which temporary permits are so granted shall not exceed the number of vehicles in respect of which the issue of the permits have been restrained or, as the case may be, the permit has been suspended.
Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 87
Section 87 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 governs the grant of temporary permits for a duration not exceeding four months, strictly restricting their issuance to four exhaustively defined temporary contingencies and barring their use as a continuous substitute for regular permits.
In challenging temporary permits granted to competitors, establish that the RTA is granting back-to-back 4-month permits to bypass the Section 80 regular permit procedure. Under MPSRTC v. RTA, successive temporary permits are illegal and vulnerable to immediate quashing by the State Transport Appellate Tribunal under Section 89 or Section 90.