Private buses shouldn’t be allowed to travel through routes notified for the state road transport corporation (KSRTC) for more than 5% of the total route length of a private bus even if such overlapping is needed to gain access to cities or towns, the high court has held.
The order by Justice V Chitambaresh came on a petition filed by KSRTC questioning the Kollam regional transport authority’s (RTA) order allowing a private bus operator to traverse through the notified route for 750 metres in excess of the limit to reach a town.
The RTA had granted a fresh regular permit to the private bus operator on the Charummoodu-Karunagappally High School route. The road corporation had moved the high court after the state transport appellate tribunal upheld the RTA’s decision.
Senior counsel P C Chacko, who appeared for KSRTC, contended that the overlapping extends to 2.5 km, which is more than the permissible limit of 5% of the total route length of the private bus of 25 km.
Appearing for the private bus operator, advocate L Muraleedharan argued that the overlapping was an inevitable intersection. The overlapping extending to a short distance even if in excess by 750 m was necessary to have access to the town, he argued.
The court cited the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2002 Karnataka SRTC vs Ashrafulla Khan case while rejecting the private bus operator’s argument. “Merely because a private operator has to traverse on the line of a notified route for 5 km or for 1.5 km only is no ground to dispense with the mandate of law. Such an overlapping also cannot be sustained on the ground that it relates to a small town. If such a view of law as propounded by the full bench is to be accepted, it is difficult to be applied where a notified route passes through bigger towns where involvement is of 10 to 20 km within that town,” the apex court had held.
The reasoning of the counsel to justify the alleged excess overlapping as an inevitable intersection to have access to the town cannot be sustained in view of the categoric pronouncement of the Supreme Court, Justice Chitambaresh held.
Source: Times Of India
