The Telangana High Court (HC,) on the 18th of November, directed the Labour Commissioner to refer the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) strike case to the Telangana Labour Court.
During the hearing, the Telangana HC heard the arguments of the TSRTC employees and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS,) following which the Court directed the Labour Court to resolve the issue.
A division bench headed by Raghavendra Singh Chauhan, the Chief Justice of Telangana, said the Telangana HC has limitations in dealing with the case, hence the Labour Commissioner would take up the matter.
The Court said it can neither declare the TSRTC strike illegal nor force the State Government to hold talks with the TSRTC staff.
In yesterday’s hearing, the TSRTC urged the Court to order the TRS to conduct talks with the TSRTC employees and Joint Action Committee (JAC) and resolve the matter. The TSRTC employees dropped their demand for merging the TSRTC with the State Government. However, the K. Chandrashekar Rao led TRS did not respond to the employees and urged the Court to declare the strike illegal.
Another point which was presented by Ramachander Rao, the Additional Advocate General representing the State Government, was the merger demand was dropped only temporarily. The Additional Advocate General said although the TSRTC JAC leaders dropped their main demand as of now, they may bring up the issue once again later, putting the Corporation and the State Government in a difficult situation. He also said some JAC leaders were pushing the Corporation into losses because of their selfish interests.
The Additional Advocate General further concluded his report, stating a few JAC leaders joined hands with the opposition to destabilise the State Government. However, the JAC denied the allegations and said the TSRTC employees are ready to call off the strike and rejoin duty if the Government agrees to their remaining demands.
The Telangana High Court gave a time of two weeks to the Labour Commissioner to resolve the matter between the TSRTC employees and the TRS Government.
Meanwhile, the TSRTC strike, which started on the 5th of October, entered its 46th day on the 19th of November.
Stay tuned for further updates.
