HC moots judicial panel to end RTC deadlock

Hyderabad: With the TRS government and TSRTC refusing to budge from their respective stands for the past 37 days despite several efforts made by the High Court giving them various directions, the court on Tuesday announced the constitution of a 3-member judicial committee with retired Supreme Court judges to resolve the issues amicably.

The court asked if the government has any issue in referring the matter to the judicial committee. State Advocate General BS Prasad has been asked to present the government's stand on the constitution of the judicial committee on Wednesday.

The division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan said the court has no powers to interfere in every administrative matter of the government and the RTC.

The court also said that the government had pleaded that the strike be declared as illegal but the court, the bench said, has certain limitations and was not competent to decide whether the ongoing strike by the RTC employees was legal or illegal.

Referring to the argument of the counsel for the government Vidyasagar, who said the government has power to impose ESMA as was done in the 1998 in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the court wondered how could the government claim that the ESMA imposed on APSRTC in the past can be made applicable to the TSRTC. It may be said here that the TS government imposed ESMA for six months in 2015.

The court further said that they cannot give a firm direction to the government to call the workers for talks. Hence, it felt that a judicial committee would be the best option to resolve the deadlock and end the crisis.

The bench pointed out that fleecing the passengers, who travelled in the RTC buses, can be resolved in the consumer court. The court will not declare the RTC strike as illegal by taking the exploitation of the commuters alone as a serious issue.