More PILs filed on RTC strike
More public interest litigations have been filed before the Telangana High Court, seeking the court to deem the Road Transport Corporation workers’ strike as illegal and direct the employees to resume their duties.
A lawyer, K. Bhaskar Reddy, from Zaheerabad and one Venkat Rao Bompalli from the city filed separate PILs on Friday before the court. Already five petitions are pending before the court on the strike dealing with issues other than the RTC workers salaries.
Both petitioners complained that the lay person is forced to spend extra money on cabs, autos and other private vehicles in the absence of the public transport and urged the court to declare the ongoing strike as illegal.
Petitioner Reddy requested the court to take stringent action against the striking employees, and brought to the notice of the court the Supreme Court guidelines laid down in T.K. Rangarajan vs State of Tamil Nadu, in which the apex court stated: ‘A perusal of Article 19(1)(a) shows that there is no fundamental right to any illegal strike and even liberal interpretation of 19(1)(c) cannot lead to the conclusions that trade unions have a guaranteed right to effective collective bargaining or to strike.’ The petitioner said the law on this subject was well-settled and it has been repeatedly held by the apex court that employees have no fundamental right to resort to strike.
The petitioners faulted the corporation and state government for not invoking the ESMA to deal with the strike.