Delhi HC junks plea challenging withdrawal of DTC buses from school service
The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the Delhi government’s decision to withdraw Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus services to 70 private schools for ferrying children.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the Delhi government’s decision to withdraw Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus services to 70 private schools for ferrying children.
A bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad also questioned the locus of the petitioner, Baba Alexandar, who despite being a Kerala resident, had filed the petition for schools in Delhi.
The court agreed with the contention of the government counsel that this was a policy decision which did not require any interference. It also said none of the schools or parents is before the court challenging the decision.
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Alexandar, who claimed to be founder secretary of National Child Development Council (NCDC), had contended that the withdrawal of DTC buses from schools without any justifiable reason has caused a deep sense of agony and disappointment among parents and also impinged on the right to clean environment as the decision would increase vehicular pollution and traffic woes.
“The decision also causes anxiety to parents and increases their financial burden as they would have to pay more in the name of transportation charges at a time when Covid-19 is still around,” the petition read.
Advocate Sameer Vashishth, appearing for the Delhi government, argued that due to the depleting fleet of the DTC, the buses cannot cater to 70 schools, thus leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
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“That the respondent (Delhi government) was providing buses for school duty to 70 schools and the total number of buses, which were deputed on school bus duty on any given day, were 579 in number. Thus, on average, on any day on which buses were provided on school duty, almost 69,480 to 81,060 numbers of passengers were affected and faced delay in their daily commute,” the Delhi government’s affidavit.
He contended that the agreement between the 70 schools and DTC was completely contractual in nature, and 15 days due notice was given to the schools, before the facilities were withdrawn.
The court, while rejecting the plea, noted that the petitioner had given examples of only two affected schools. A detailed order is awaited.
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