ORDER : 1. Special leave granted. 2. The appeal is heard. 3. The appellant was the grantee of a permit to play a stage carriage on the Ujjain-Jaora route under the order of the Regional Transport Authority, Indore dated 9.12.1975. On appeal the grant was set aside by the State Transport Appellate Tribunal on 5.1.1978 on the ground that in the meanwhile a draft scheme (Scheme No. 79) covering a part of the route in question had been published under section 68-C of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 proposing to exclude the operation of private stage carriages from the said section of the route and the matter was remanded to the Regional Transport Authority to reconsider the application of the rival claimants after the approval of the draft scheme. That order of the Tribunal was challenged by the appellant before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. That Petition was dismissed in 1983. This appeal by special leave is filed against the order of the High Court. 4. Admittedly the draft scheme was published on 25.7.1975. Even though more than 10 years have elapsed from that date no approved scheme is published under section 68-D of the Act. No satisfactory explanation is forthcoming for not finalising the scheme till now. We feel that in the circumstances it would not be in the public interest to allow the draft scheme to be in force any longer in view of the reasons given in the decisions in Yogeshwar Jaiswal v. State Transport Appellate Tribunal, (1985) 1 SCC 725 and Phool Chard Gupta v. Regional Transport Authority, Ujjain & Ors., (1985) 4 SCC 190 . We accordingly quash the draft scheme. The appellant is at liberty to make a fresh application for a stage carriage permit if he is so advised before the Regional Transport Authority. This order is without prejudice to the power of the State Transport Undertaking to publish a fresh draft scheme if it finds that it is in the public interest to do so. The appeal is accordingly allowed to the above extent. There will be no order as to costs. Allowing the appeal.