High court summons Punjab chief secretary over bus permits controversy

The pleas claim the petitioners are not being allowed to run their buses and are being illegally denied their constitutional right to trade and profession.

Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday summoned Punjab chief secretary for appearance on Wednesday over pleas from private operators alleging that they are not being allowed to ply their buses.

It was further alleged that the government is trying to grant undue favour to PRTC and other private operators, who are tax defaulters (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The order was passed by high court bench of justice Anil Kshetarpal on pleas from New Deep Bus Service, New Deep Motors and Neelon Bus Service, two of the counsels, Sangram Saron and Rohit Sud confirmed. Detailed order from the court is awaited.

The pleas claim the petitioners are not being allowed to run their buses and are being illegally denied their constitutional right to trade and profession.

It was further alleged that the government is trying to grant undue favour to PRTC and other private operators, who are tax defaulters. “Not only is PRTC a tax defaulter, it has been granted concession of paying defaulted amounts in 13 installments, which is against Punjab Motor Vehicles Taxation Act. The Act states that tax interest or penalty may be recovered in maximum of four equal installments,” the plea claimed.

It was submitted that the regional transport authority (RTA), Bathinda, had last year issued a timetable which was in violation of October 2011 and November 2016 high court orders. The time table was prepared without giving details of permit numbers, number of trips, bus numbers and validity of permits. Even tax defaulters were not excluded, it was stated.

On December 21, 2021, the petitioners sent a legal notice to the authorities and in view of this on January 17, the time table was withdrawn. However, as PRTC workers went on strike, and in order to appease them ahead of state assembly polls, the January 17 order was kept in abeyance. Similar decisions were taken by other RTAs. With this, the time table has come into force again, in violation of high court orders and petitioners are not able to run their buses, the court was told.

The petitioners added that with this decision, the RTAs have willfully violated court orders.