Hyderabad: Moved by the plight of APSRTC and TSRTC drivers who have been declared unfit to drive on account of “acquiring disability” while in service and been given lower posts of “shramik” without pay protection, the Hyderabad High Court has ruled that they are entitled to alternative jobs as a matter of course.
Justice P. Naveen Rao was hearing a batch of petitions by aggrieved drivers seeking a direction to the corporations to pay salaries and allowances payable to the post of drivers for the period during which they were not allowed to perform their duties as drivers.
According to the petitioners, they were referred to the medical board, which found that they were suffering from defective distant vision and declared them unfit to perform the duties of a driver.
As the board certified that they were fit to perform alternative employment, the corporation retired them and provided employment as “shramik”.
The corporation defended its action contending that keeping in view the safety of passengers, it could not allow drivers who did not fulfil the requisite medical standards to drive.
While allowing the petitions, the judge ordered that all drivers who were not assigned work after they were declared medically unfit were entitled to pay and allowances attached to the post of drivers till they retired from service or alternative jobs were provided to them.
They would also be paid arrears with 8 per cent interest from the due date till the date of payment. The order should be complied within eight weeks from the date of receipt of this order, he said.
HC: no stay on Metro work in Jubilee hills
The Hyderabad High Court has refused to stay the land acquisition process for the Metro Rail project in Jubilee Hills area of the city.
Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar was disposing of a petition by Transstroy India Ltd., challenging the land acquisition notification issued by the government in 2015 seeking to acquire a portion of a building owned by it at Jubilee Hills.
The petitioner urged the court to direct the authorities to acquire the whole building instead of a part. The petitioner alleged that the Metro Rail alignment was changed to go through its property to save the interests of several influential persons and retired IAS officials.
The judge rejected the allegations of the petitioner and said that he has no right to stall the ongoing acquisition.
Advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy told the court that the petitioner company can make an application to the authorities seeking acquisition of the remaining part of the building.
The judge recorded the statement of the A-G and pointed out that the objections were being raised by the petitioner for the first time.
