A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday declined the plea of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to extend by two months the deadline for implementing its directives to dispense with the service of empanelled conductors who have not completed 10 years and 120 days of minimum service in a year and appoint those advised by the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) in their place.
The Bench comprising Justice V. Chitambaresh and Justice R. Narayana Pisharadi, meanwhile, expressed its displeasure over the statements made by Managing Director (MD) of the KSRTC through the electronic media regarding the alleged difficulty in implementing the court order.
In its petition, the KSRTC submitted that the Corporation had as many as 4,071 such empanelled conductors. The services of some of these persons would be required to deal with emergency situations. If their services were dispensed with, it would lead to cancellation of trips and cause inconvenience to the general public.
MD cautioned
Even those candidates who were to be appointed from the rank list would have to be given training. Therefore, more time was required for complying with the directives of the High Court. The Bench reminded the MD that the consequences would be drastic if its directives were not complied with.
The Bench had issued the directive to the KSRTC on an appeal filed by those candidates advised by the PSC challenging a single judge verdict rejecting their plea to appoint them after terminating the empanelled conductors.
The Bench had observed that the empanelled conductors who had completed 10 years of service and 120 days of minimum service in a year were entitled to regularisation by way of the government order issued on November 21, 2013. However, those who did not cross the above cut off marks could not cling on to their posts after vacancies were reported to the PSC on the basis of the rank list dated May 9, 2013.
