MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court closed the suo motu proceedings with regard to the menace of footboard travel in buses, after the state government informed the court that 24,747 buses have been provided with closing door facility in both public and contract carriers, and the remaining 14,102 buses would be provided with the facility in a phased manner within two years.
A division bench of Justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy closed the suo motu proceedings initiated in 2013.
The court had then asked the state government as to why suitable action was not taken towards implementing the single bench order of 2012, with regard to preventing footboard travel in buses. Citing non-compliance, the court took suo motu cognisance in 2013, and sought statistics of the buses plying with and without closing door facility.
Earlier, the court had observed that footboard travel in buses was a menace and a dangerous one. Pointing out that a lot of lives are lost in such accidents on a daily basis, the single judge issued directions to eradicate the menace completely.
However, the directions were not implemented fully or properly. Though the court was told that the stakeholders had taken several measures to curb footboard travel, violations were reported every day.
During the previous hearing, the government pleader submitted that the directions were being implemented in a phased manner, and a considerable number of buses plying in the state have a closing door facility. Hence, the court sought statistics about the number of buses plying with and without closing door facilities.
The court further directed the home secretary to file a consolidated report, ahead of adjourning the case.
When the case came up for hearing again, the home secretary filed a status report stating that 24,747 buses already have the closing door facility and 14,102 others would be provided with the facility in a phased manner. Recording the submission, the court closed the suo motu proceedings.