NEW DELHI: Call it miscarriage of justice or unnecessary wastage of judicial time, a 73-year-old Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) conductor is running from pillar to post from past 41 years for an alleged cash bugling of 5 paise. Ranvir Singh Yadav’s case dates back to 1973 when he was the bus conductor. He was accused of charging a woman passenger 15 paise, but gave her a ticket of 10 paise and kept the extra 5 paise with himself.
The flying squad of DTC had decided that he had cheated the Corporation and had been negligent and thereafter, a departmental inquiry was conducted and he was found guilty of causing a loss of 5 paise to the public exchequer and was suspended in 1976. Surprisingly, both DTC and Yadav has spent nearly `5 lakh to fight the case.
Though Yadav won the case in Labour Court in 1990, which held his sacking illegal, DTC appealed it before the Delhi High Court stating that an employee who cheated the government can’t be allowed to go scot-free. DTC has alleged that Yadav had allowed ticketless travel to several passengers and is a repeat offender. Yadav said, “Our judicial system has ruined my complete life. Now, I have lost all hope of getting justice. I have spent my entire savings to prove that I was clean to make my sons believe that I did no wrong.”
Earlier, this year, the HC had asked the DTC to pay Yadav `6 lakh as gratuity and other benefits and said, “Here is a case, where the respondent has been fighting a prolonged battle with the DTC spanning over 41 years and despite having won the case in the Labour Court, he has not been able to reap the fruits.”