The Jabalpur Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday disposed of a PIL with the direction that the petitioner should complain to the Transport Commissioner about the collection of arbitrary fare from passengers by bus operators.
The petitioner, Sitaram Yadav, filed the PIL through Advocate Dinesh Kumar Upadhyay seeking a direction to the state to implement the decision dated 08.05.2015 published in the Extraordinary Gazette Notification dated 28.05.2018 prescribing transportation charges of the vehicle.
In the PIL, it has also been prayed to the state to ensure that none of the bus operators or transporters shall charge fare from passengers in excess of Re 1 per kilometre as prescribed by the notification. A direction has been sought to display the rate-list on every bus stop and the authorities to make continuous monitoring on periodical basis in this regard.
Government Advocate for the State submitted that the relief sought in the PIL are of general nature and the petitioner has failed to point out that who are charging higher fare than what is prescribed in the notification. He further submitted that the petitioner may submit a representation before the Transport Commissioner, Madhya Pradesh Gwalior, highlighting his grievances as pointed-out in the writ petition and in turn, the said authority shall take into consideration the representation of the petitioner in accordance with law.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla after hearing the submission from the Counsels ordered that “the petition is disposed of by granting liberty to the petitioner to submit a detailed representation before the respondent no.2(state), Transport Commissioner, Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior highlighting his grievances for implementation of the charges as prescribed in the Gazette Notification dated 28.05.2018. The transport Commissioner, Gwalior shall consider and decide the representation of the petitioner within a period of three months from the date of communication of the order”.
The Court also directed the transport Commissioner, Gwalior to provide a mechanism to check and to take effective steps to ensure that none of the bus operator would charge fair more than what has been prescribed in the Gazette Notification dated 28.05.2018.