Chennai, Oct 5:
The Madras High Court has dismissed a petition challenging the Tamil Nadu government’s ‘Vetri Payanam’ scheme providing free bus travel for women, after the petitioner withdrew the case.
The Vetri Payanam scheme, an expanded version of the earlier ‘Vidiyal Payanam’ scheme, was launched by Chief Minister Vijay on October 2. It enables women to travel free of cost in more than 12,600 ordinary, LSS and express buses across Tamil Nadu every day.
The petition was filed by Kalamani, a private bus operator from Erode. He contended that the scheme would cause financial losses to private bus operators and could force them to shut down their businesses. He also argued that allowing women to travel without paying fares violated the constitutional principle of equality.
The petitioner said the government was bearing an annual expenditure of around Rs 6,000 crore towards the scheme, while a demand from private bus operators for similar compensation and extension of the scheme to private buses had not been accepted.
The petition also contended that the scheme was being implemented based only on an announcement made by the Chief Minister under Rule 110 of the Assembly and that no government order had been issued. It sought a declaration that the scheme was unconstitutional and an interim stay on its implementation.
The case came up before a bench comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan. The Tamil Nadu government submitted that the scheme had been launched based on the Chief Minister’s announcement under Rule 110.
The judges questioned how a private bus operator running services on only two routes in Erode could challenge a scheme being implemented across Tamil Nadu. They also observed that the petition challenging the entire scheme could not be treated as a public interest litigation.
Following the court’s observations, the petitioner sought permission to withdraw the case. The bench allowed the request and dismissed the petition as withdrawn.