Bus owners cannot discriminate against students citing concession rate for student tickets: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently said that bus owners cannot discriminate against students, by not allowing them to board the bus and preferring general passengers over students, only because students are given tickets at concessional rates [Siraj v State of Kerala]..Justice PV Kunhikrishnan took note of the concern that bus owners of private buses and public transport buses do not allow the students to board the bus and prefer other passengers instead of students due to the meager student concession rate. “This usually creates a law-and-order problem in several places,” the High Court remarked.However, the High Court opined it cannot pass orders on whether or not the ticket rates should be enhanced since this is a policy matter for the State government to decide.The Court acknowledged that the value of money has changed from the time when the student concession rate for tickets was initially fixed.“But student organizations and the government should look into the changed realities,” the High Court added.The High Court proceeded to urge the bus owners to take up this issue with the government and the transport department.However, Justice Kunhikrishnan reminded them that as long as the student concessions are in force, they cannot take a discriminative stand against the students while boarding buses, only because they are paying the concessional rate.“As long as the student concessions are in force, the owners and the employees of a bus cannot take a discriminative stand against the students while boarding buses, only because they are paying the concession rate. Students and other passengers are on an equal footing,” said Justice Kunhikrishnan.He further said that it is the duty of the police to see that there is no law and order problem in connection with the same.Thereafter, he directed the State police chief to issue necessary directions to all its subordinates to avert all such law-and-order problems arising due to this rift between students and employees of the buses..The High Court passed these directions while quashing the First Information Statement (FIR) filed against three conductors for wrongfully restraining the students from boarding a bus.The Court quashed the case after noting that Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act, which deals with “violation of the standards prescribed in relation to road safety, control of noise and air-pollution", would not be attracted in this case. "Simply because students were not allowed to board a bus, it cannot be treated as violation of the standards prescribed in relation to road safety, control of noise and air-pollution," the Court reasoned. The Court also found that no offence was made out against the conductors under Section 196 read with Section 146 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which deals with the requirement of having third party insurance. .The petitioners were represented by advocates Anil Sivaraman and Sreedhar Ravindran.The State was represented by public prosecutor Maya MN..[Read Judgment]