Plea In Telangana High Court Challenges Free Transportation For Women & Transgenders On TSRTC Buses As Violative Of Constitutional Principles

A plea has been moved before the Telangana High Court challenging a Government Order passed by the State, providing free travel on public transport exclusively to females, including transgenders, throughout the Telangana state in Telangana Road Transport Corporation utilities as ultra vires of the Road Trasport Corporation Act, 1950 and violative of Article 15 of the Constitution.

The petition was placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti.

The petitioner contended that the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation had exceeded its jurisdiction in passing the GO. He stated that the Corporation derived its power from the Road Transport Act, of 1950, and under the Act, only the Centre has the power to frame laws.

He further stated that the Corporation is designed to promote the provisions of efficient, adequate, economical, and properly coordinated Transport in return for profit. He emphasized that Section 22 of the Act lays down a business principle for raising finances to keep the corporation running, and the Order should be set aside because it goes against Section 22.

It was also submitted that under the Industrial Disputes Act, of 1947 the Road Transport Corporation facilities or transport are not considered 'public utility services.'

It was also stated that the Corporation runs a fleet of buses and provides a range of services from economical to extra luxury and it would be discriminative to provide only one section of the society these facilities free of cost.

“It is submitted that free travel may not only create over flooding of commuters, it shall also encourage unnecessary travel at the cost of other passengers. The free travel creates lot of inconvenience not only to non-free travel passengers but also to other genuine free travel passengers who uses public transport as mode of travel. it is further submitted that free travel increases the travel percentage as it increases unnecessary travel and that leads to increase in services to meet the eventually leading to additional pollution causing environmental crisis” the petition read.

The Bench has directed the registry to register the petition as a writ since the petitioner has admitted to being personally aggrieved by the Government Order.

WP (PIL) 6 of 2024

Counsel for petitioner: Senior Counsel M. Govind Reddy representing A. Bheeshmadev Rao

Counsel for respondents: Mohammed Imran Khan, Senior Counsel and Additional Advocate General, Gadi Praveen Kumar

Click Here To Read/Download Order