: The Madras High Court Bench here has refused to direct the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) to desist from forcing bus drivers to double up as conductors besides giving up the practice of making them drive buses at a stretch for more than eight hours without ensuring the presence of a spare driver on every long distance bus.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Nagamuthu and M.V. Muralidaran dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by an advocate in 2011 after holding that such directions could not be issued since they squarely fall within the realm of government service jurisprudence and none of the drivers of SETC had so far complained of being overburdened with work.
“It is well settled law that service matters will be conducted only based on the service rules, and any violation of the service rules in respect of the individual employees can be questioned only by those individuals and no other person has any right or locus standi to question the service rules. “This being the position, this petitioner being an advocate has no role at all in this service matter in respect of the respondent Corporation,” the judges said.They also pointed out that even as per the information obtained by the petitioner under the Right to Information Act on February 25, 2011, the SETC had employed 2,421 drivers and 2,425 conductors for operating a total of 910 buses owned by it and operated in 192 routes and none of them was being forced to work for more than eight hours.
The petitioner, P. Mayilarajaperumal, had filed the case on the basis of his personal experience of travelling in an SETC bus between Chennai and Thoothukudi when he reportedly witnessed a single driver handling the bus continuously for a stretch of 13 hours, thereby putting the life of the passengers at risk.
