Telangana government rejects high court plan for judges’ panel on RTC tussle

HYDERABAD: In what could be seen as a confrontation with the judiciary, the state government on Wednesday refused to constitute a three-member committee of former Supreme Court judges, as suggested by the Telangana high court, to mediate and resolve the 40-day long RTC stalemate.
Making the TRS government’s stand clear, advocate general BS Prasad told a bench of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy that an affidavit has been filed expressing inability of the government to consider setting up the high-power committee consisting of judges who commanded respect.The high court had on Tuesday suggested the formation of the panel to bring about an immediate conciliation so that the state government, RTC management and striking employees could iron out the differences.
Prasad said: “Let the court direct the labour commissioner to initiate further steps under the Industrial Disputes (ID) Act as should be done after the conciliation officer furnishes the failure report to the government.” He sought to remind the court that the government could not move forward in the matter since the high court is seized of the matter for over a month now. The bench was hearing a batch of PILs on the ongoing RTC strike.
Bench posts RTC case to November 18
The labour commissioner would refer the matter to the labour court which would adjudicate the matter on merit, Prasad argued. “The labour court is the correct forum to decide whether the strike is illegal or legal,” he said.
To a query from the bench on the time the government would require, he said four weeks should be enough. “We will try to complete the task even before that time,” he said. Prasad also said that the government need not obtain prior approval of the Centre to set up TSRTC under section 47-A of the RTC Act as claimed by the Centre’s counsel.
“Division of assets between RTCs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will be done as per the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act, which has primacy over the RTC Act,” Prasad contended.
Prasad argued that Telangana government had declared RTC as an essential service in December 2015 itself. “Hence, the strike can be declared illegal — both under the ID Act and also under Esma,” he said.
Appearing for RTC, additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao said a plain reading of the provisions of the ID Act would make it clear that the very commencement of the strike by the employees without following the due procedure was illegal.
Senior counsel D Prakash Reddy, who appeared for the striking workers, said he would like to address the court on whether a judicial committee is required or not and sought time till Nov 18 to put forward his case. “A high court too can act as an adjudicatory body under the ID Act,” he observed.
Prakash pointed out that the government on one hand was saying that TSRTC came into existence in April 2016 and on the other was claiming that it brought RTC under Esma in 2015. “This is a discrepancy on the part of the government,” he said.
The bench, while posting the case to Nov 18 for further hearing, said it would hear the PIL on privatisation of RTC routes on Thursday.