The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday upheld the State government’s 1997 decision dividing the Karnataka Road Transport Corporation and establishing transport corporations for Bangalore city, the North East, the North West and for other regions.
A Division Bench comprising Justice N. Kumar and Justice V. Suri Appa Rao passed the order while setting aside the July 2, 2007 order of a single judge, who had declared that setting up of new corporations for different parts of the State was not permissible in law while permitting the government to establish subsidiaries of the KSRTC as per Section 17A of the Road Transport Act.
The single judge set aside the government notification creating North West Road Transport Corporation to cover Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, and Bijapur districts; North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation to cover Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur and Belllary districts; Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation for Bangalore city; and KSRTC for old Mysore and other nationalised areas.
Power
However, the Division Bench ruled that the government had the power under Section 3 of the RTC Act to set up transport corporations either for the whole of the State or for any part of the State and creation of these new corporations come under Section 3.
