The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed the Karnataka State Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, which allows existing private bus operators to continue operations “only” till the State transport buses are deployed in some of the routes notified exclusively for the State transport undertakings.
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer passed the interim order on the petitions filed by R.V. Subhashchandra Bose and others who hold permits to operate private bus services in some of the routes notified for the State transport undertakings.
This Act was brought into force to continue temporarily the operation of the existing private buses in the notified routes under “Kolar, Mysuru, Bengaluru, BTS, and Karnataka schemes” till the State transport undertaking deploys its buses.
The Supreme Court, in a case filed by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) against grant of permits to private operators in the notified routes, had held that modification may be effected “only” to need and convenience of the travelling public on their representation on the ground that the State transport undertaking lacks the necessary resources in the form of vehicles or infrastructure to meet the public demand.
Following this verdict, the State authorities had passed an order declaring that grant of permits for private bus operators in notified routes were improper. As this step would have affected the travelling public, the State passed the Karnataka State Motor Vehicles (Special Provisions) Bill last year. Meanwhile, the High Court had also permitted the private operators to continue their operations till the Bill received the President’s accent.
As the President granted accent on February 16, the operators now contended that there was no application of mind in grant of accent as the condition in the new law, that allows private operators only for a year or till State transport undertaking deployed its service, was against public interest in terms of the observations made by the apex court.
