(Image source from: Thewire.in)

Telangana Government Denies Arbitration Committee Following TSRTC Strikes:- The TSRTC strike is on a whole different record, affecting the mode of transportation in the state, making it tough for the ordinary people to fight through the shortcomings. The State government rejected the Telangana High Court’s appeal for the arbitration committee on November 13th, 2019.

This committee was proposed to consist of three members comprising of the retired Supreme court judges for the arbitration to break through the indefinite strike that the TSRTC employees have gone on since over a month.

Advocate General B S Prasad Rao, in his argument presented before the high court, stated saying that the strike was completely illegal, aside from the Industrial Tribunal Act. He justified all the possible sides involved in this. He further stated that the validity of all the notification was extended from time to time every six months.

Rao also stated saying that the involvement of the Central Government was only required when the reorganized stated experienced disputes when it came around to the division of the assets between them.

The high court bench which was associated with the case compromised of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Abhishekh Reddy seeking clarifications on the status of the ESMA to the TSRTC.

Prasad Rao then went on to inform the high court of the state government’s inability to accept the proposal for the committee. He clarified stating that an affidavit was filed before the court to be able to further explain the kind of situation that the government is in.

The petitioner’s counsel, on the other hand, have submitted saying that the workers have already given out their consent for the constitution of the committee and even ended up relaying the government’s stance in denying the consent.

The bench involved in the high court also asked clarifications on whether or not the TSRTC was the product of the APSRTC or the new corporation. Answering that, it was clarified that the TSRTC is a byproduct and the 47A of the Reorganisation Act was not valid and mandatory under that.

The Advocate General further stated that the affidavits filed by the authorities do explain the inability of the government in protecting the corporation from the crisis it is subjected under.

Addressing the situations, the bench further raised the question saying, “If we have to relegate the matter to competent authority, there should be a direction to resolve the issue in a reasonable time. What would be the reasonable time according to government?”

Advocate General, Ramchandar Rao further submitted in a report saying that as per the Industrial Disputes Act, the workers were all on illegal strike and also said that the high court does hold the power to rule out the entire strike as illegal. The bench is now going to hear about the privatization of 5100 routes by the corporation. The further take and decision on the response to that illegal strike is going to be lifted on November 18th, 2019.

By Somapika Dutta