Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday ordered KSRTC to remove 1,565 empanelled drivers by April 30 from rolls.
The order came on an appeal filed by Cherthala native R. Venugopal who figures on a PSC rank list for the driver post.
The court said that it had repeatedly taken a stand against deploying empanelled staff indefinitely, but the KSRTC is allowing them to continue to appease the trade unions. The court said that the expiry of the PSC rank list dated August 23, 2012, is immaterial “since it is conceded that the KSRTC reported 2,455 vacancies in the post of drivers to the PSC much before the expiry of the rank list on Dec 31, 2016, pursuant to the interim order dated Dec 30, 2015.” The court also said that KSRTC could decide whether to direct PSC to issue advice memo to the reported vacancies or hold the appointments considering the financial condition of KSRTC. “We make it clear that the KSRTC is free to request the PSC to advise candidates from the ranked list of the vacancies already reported if it so desires and the appointment if any shall be in accordance with the seniority in advice,” the court said. “We, however, make it clear that the relieving of the empanelled drivers shall not affect their claim for regularisation if any pending before various forums.”
In the wake of the Lok Sabha elections on April 23, KSRTC has been given time till April 30 to complete the proceedings. The court pointed to the order directing relieving empanelled conductors upheld by the Supreme Court and said that both conductors and drivers could not be allowed to overstay beyond a period of 180 days keeping the candidates on the PSC rank list waiting.
