Possibly the worst time for transport strike, observes Karnataka HC

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday expressed hope that the public transport workers would call off their strike and resume operations without compromising on their demands.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka ordered notice to the respondents, including the Karnataka State Transport Employees’ League and posted the matter for further hearing to Thursday.

Acting on a batch of PILs seeking intervention of the court, the bench said that assuming the demands made by the Transport (employees) Union are legitimate, it is possibly the worst time to take recourse to the transport strike, since the entire state is under the grip of Covid-19 pandemic.

The bench also ordered notice to the state government, four state-owned transport corporations - KSRTC, BMTC, NEKRTC and NWKRTC.

The bench hoped that without compromising on the demands, the Union will come forward before the court with an assurance that the operations of the four entities will be immediately resumed so that the common man, who is already under huge stress, does not suffer further inconvenience.

During the hearing, Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadgi informed the court that action had been taken against the employees.

The advocate general said that among other demands, the Union has put forth an unviable demand to declare the employees as government staff.

The bench clarified that it was not on the legitimacy or correctness of the demands of the Union and said that it views that amidst the Covid-19 situation, such strikes violate fundamental rights of the citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution.

“It cannot be disputed that disruption of bus services of these four entities has affected the common man in the most difficult times. Practically, the entire state is in the grip of a sudden surge of Covid-19 cases. There have been a large number of deaths due to Covid-19. The BMTC is perhaps the cheapest mode of transportation for the common man. People have to report to their duty, they have to go to vaccination centres for vaccination. This is the time when this service should be available to the common man,” the bench
said.