HYDERABAD: The Telangana government told the HC that the Cabinet decision of November 2 to give permits to 5,100 private bus operators per se may not be open to judicial review since the process is still pending, and therefore, further process as required under the constitutional scheme may not be interdicted with by the High Court.
Till a GO is issued, the Cabinet decision which is founded upon the statute of Parliament viz Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 cannot be called in question, since it has not fructified into a GO, it noted.
In this regard, Chief Secretary SK Joshi on Saturday filed an additional counter affidavit with a plea to dismiss the PIL filed by Prof PL Vishweshwar Rao, vice-president of Telangana Jana Samithi, challenging the cabinet’s decision to privatise permits of 5,100 routes existing in the TSRTC. The petitioner sought stay of all further proceedings in privatisation of 5,100 permits of the RTC in pursuance of cabinet decision.
The CS submitted that as per Section 102 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, there is a clear provision to issue draft notification in the official gazette and a vernacular newspaper to call for objections from state transport undertaking.
Only after objections are heard and disposed, final gazette notification will be published. Unless a notification is issued, there is no cause of action to call in question the validity of a cabinet decision, and it is a policy of the government in the very early infancy which can be altered, modified or rescinded by the government any time before a GO is issued.
Policy will be brought into operation by a GO. In the present case, the GO shall be issued by the department in conformity with the provisions of the MV Act as amended, he added.
On Nov 14, the court after perusing the contents of the cabinet decision, suggested the petitioner’s counsel to amend the prayer of the present case since the plea in the PIL does not coincide with the decision of the cabinet, since it does not say ‘privatisation of RTC’.
When the counsel sought some time for amending the prayer, the matter was posted to Nov 18.