HC stays order on quashing of notices to private bus operators

CHANDIGARH: A division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday stayed operation of a single-judge order in which show-cause notices by the Punjab transport department to 650 operators were quashed in May 2018.

The division bench of justice Surya Kant and justice Sudip Ahluwalia acted on an appeal by the Punjab government against the single-judge order.

“We want to break the transport mafia (in Punjab)…we want clean players to enter the field,” the division bench orally observed while staying the operation of the order.

In the notices issued in February, the transport department had asked the operators as to why extension of permits beyond 24 km of original permit granted, should not be withdrawn. Besides, it was also asked as to why diversion, curtailment and increase/decrease in trips, etc. granted from time to time should also not be withdrawn.

The single-judge bench had set aside the notices in May holding that the judgment of the division bench was misinterpreted by the state transport department while issuing show-cause notices to the private bus operators not only for the repeated extensions but also for curtailments, diversions and increase/decrease of the trips etc.

ORDER REVIVES SHOW- CAUSE NOTICES

Now, the high court division bench order revives the showcause notices issued to operators.

It was in 2012 that a high court division bench had set aside the Punjab government scheme in M/s Vijayant Travels’s case holding that extensions/curtailments/diversions of operation of existing permits to an unlimited extent can’t be allowed.