It looks like Telangana high court has taken serious note of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s highhanded behaviour towards striking Road Transport Corporation employees and his careless attitude towards the court directions.
Apparently, the high court has learnt KCR was of the view that the courts have no jurisdiction to question the powers of the government and that they cannot do anything, if he takes a decision to privatise the public transport.
The court also took serious view of KCR’s comments that the judiciary cannot do anything if he did not pay salaries to the striking RTC employees.
“What can the court do? Will it beat me?” he replied to a query from a reporter at a press conference last week.
The high court’s anger at the TRS government was reflected during the hearing on RTC strike.
The judges clearly said they cannot ask the employees to stop the strike as it was their legitimate right. But the court can ask the government to pay whatever is due to the RTC workers, they said.
The high court found fault with advocate general B N Prasad for saying that the government had no dues pending payment to the RTC. It rapped the advocate for hiding the facts.
When asked about reimbursement arrears of Rs 1099 arrears, Prasad said it had to be distributed in 42:58 ration between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The court expressed dissatisfaction over the report presented by the government and said the Telangana part should be paid to the RTC.
In a separate case, too, the high court gave a rap on the KCR government for denying permission to hold a public meeting at Saroornagar.
The court granted permission for the RTC unions and asked the government to make necessary arrangements.
