CHENNAI: The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy has asked the state government to take stringent action, including suspension of permit, against private bus operators if they fleece commuters by charging extra fares above the fixed rate.
The direction was given on petitions seeking action against private bus operators who have been charging extra fare from passengers. The petitioners also wanted the court to pass orders to the regional transport officers to take severe action against such operators who provide services within district and between districts.
Government pleader A Edwin Prabhakar, representing the government, informed the court that a circular to take appropriate action against fleecing by bus operators has been issued to the transport department authorities across the state.
“There is a proposal for increasing the penalty amount by three-fold to deter the operators from collecting extra fare,” he told the bench. The bench, while observing that slapping fine alone is not enough to address the problem, stressed for stringent action including suspension of permit be taken against the operators.
Consider TMC poll-symbol application, ECI told
Chennai: The Madras High Court directed the Election Commission of India to consider on merits the application submitted by Tamil Maanila Congress for allotment of bicycle symbol for the Lok Sabha election.
The direction was given by the division bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq while disposing of a petition filed by TMC seeking a direction to the ECI to allot it the symbol based on a representation submitted on February 6, 2024.
Asking the petitioner to submit a fresh application by enclosing all the documents, the bench asked the commission to tag it with the original application and consider it on merits.
Earlier, advocate Niranjan Rajagopalan, representing the ECI, informed the court the application of TMC had some defects and if they submit a fresh one, it would be considered as per the seniority by following the due procedures.