Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 28: The state government has advised Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation to settle issues concerning transfer, suspension and dismissals of its employees and also the appeals against the punitive steps, to be sorted out through the process of dialogue in a time bound manner. It advised the government, corporations and the employees to avoid creating problems for the people by continuing the strike at a time when the society is going through the threat of COVID 19.

A division bench of the high court headed by Chief Justice, A S Oka, and Justice Suraj Govindaraj, conducted hearing of the public interest litigation filed by an NGO, 'Samarpana', advocate, Nataraj Sharma and others on Tuesday April 27. It said that the final goal of the employees’ organization, transport corporations and the government should be not to create an environment where people who are already reeling under problems created by COVID19 do not plunge further into complications.

"The employees have already withdrawn their agitation. There is a provision for the employees to appeal against their suspension, transfer and dismissals as per law and get relief. Therefore, the employees union should prepare appeals with details of employees and submit them to the offices of the all the four transport corporations. These corporations should send the appeals to the appellate authority and dispose them of within two weeks," the court directed.

The high court noted that the government has stated that the issues pertaining to the demands of employees is before the industrial tribunal. It said that the corporations and the government can continue to discuss the issues with the employees. If this is not possible, it said it will decide on the appointment of retired judges of the high court as arbitrators.