HC Offers To Form Panel To Check Legality Of RTC Strike

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday observed that it didn't have the powers to act by exceeding the ambit of the existing laws of the land.

A division bench of the High Court heard a batch of Public Interest Litigations filed over the ongoing TSRTC employees' strike and the recent decision of the State cabinet to issue permits to private operators for 5,100 routes of the TSRTC.

Dealing with the case, the court asked senior advocate Vidya Sagar whether it (the court) had the powers to declare the strike as illegal.

Responding to the question, Sagar said that the HC could declare the strike as illegal under the ESMA. He also showed some GOs to the HC including one issued in 2015.

After perusing the 2015 GO, the court said that the GO was meant only for six months, and asked the senior counsel to show any other GO.

It also made it clear that the court was not an exception to the law of the land.

The HC said that it was ready to attempt to solve the problem by constituting a three-member committee comprising former judges of the Supreme Court, and asked the Advocate General of the State to find out the opinion of the State government on the issue.

Responding to a plea of one of the petitioners to declare the strike as illegal, the court said the strike could not be declared illegal based on the allegations of the petitioner of collections of excess charges, and asked the petitioner to file a petition in a consumer court on the issue.