Madurai: The Madurai Bench of Madras High observed that allowing the omni buses to fix the fares is against the law. The court, which took suo-motu notice of omnibuses charging high fares during the Deepavali season, issued a set of guidelines to government authorities to prevent the omnibuses from exploiting passengers during the last five days of the season.
When the division bench comprising Justices S Nagamuthu and G.Muralidharan heard the case on Friday, the public prosecutor told the court that following the guidelines they inspected 18,181 omnibuses and seized 25 buses for collecting excess ticket charges from the passengers. And they have also refunded the excess fare of Rs 2 lakh to 1,133 passengers beside collecting a fine of Rs 40 lakhs from the bus owners for various violations, he said.
The advocate appearing for the Madurai Omnibus Association told the court that they have increased the fare during the festival only after intimating the state transport minister and transport commissioner. However, the Government pleader opposed this view. The association also justified collecting higher fares because they were providing good facilities for the passengers. As the government buses do not have such facilities, passengers prefer the omnibuses, the advocate argued.
Senior counsel Isaac Mohanal, who was appointed as amicus curiae by the court, also admitted that government buses lack such facilities. "For instance, passengers are found carrying umbrellas while travelling in the government buses in Kanyakumari because they will get wet during rain," he pointed out. When the Madurai Omnibus Association suggested to the court that the government can form an expert committee to fix the fares, the judges directed the state transport commissioner to appear in person to submit his explanation and posted the final hearing on November 11.
