The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered that the government and officials attached to the transport, revenue and police departments “shall not permit contract carriage operators or their agents to fix/collect individual fares for/from passengers travelling in the contract carriages and shall take appropriate legal action against the violators.”
The Transport Commissioner, Director of Institute of Road Transport, Joint Secretary in the Home (Transport) Department and Joint Secretary, Finance Department shall be the ex-officio members of the court-appointed committee. The judges directed the State government to issue orders within two weeks declaring the constitution of the committee, which shall hold its first sitting at the office of the Transport Commissioner or any other convenient place within one week thereafter.
Disposing of a suo motu public interest litigation petition, a Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran directed the Expert Committee to issue a public notice in an English as well as a Tamil daily about its sitting and call for suggestions, if any, in writing, the judges said it should afford sufficient opportunity to various associations of the contract carriage operators in the State to explain their views before making its recommendations, regarding fixation of fares, to the State government within four months from the date of the first sitting. On receipt of the recommendations, the State government should consider them and notify the fares in the official gazette within 12 weeks thereafter and issue directions to the State Transport Authority as well as the Regional Transport Authorities in every district to implement them strictly.
The judges also ordered that contract carriage operators, their agents as well as canvassers shall be bound by the fares notified by the government through the gazette publication.
“Until such notification is issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Contract Carriage Operators shall operate the contract carriages by strictly complying with the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 and the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989,” the judges said after expressing their anguish over the illegality of arbitrary fixation and collection of fares from individual passengers having been perpetuated with impunity for decades together.
Stating that the government authorities had turned a blind eye to the illegality possibly on being swayed by a single judge’s 1987 judgment, which was subsequently overruled, the Division Bench said: “Either in ignorance of the overruling or pretending to be ignorant, the authorities under the Motor Vehicles Act in this State have allowed the contract carriage operators to commit illegality by collecting exorbitant individual fares with impunity.”
It directed the State government to pay an initial remuneration of Rs.5 lakh to the court-appointed chairman of the committee, besides providing the services of a steno-typist, an assistant and other necessary facilities for the functioning of the committee.
Transport Commissioner, Director of Institute of Road Transport will be ex-officio members of panel
