The Karnataka Excessive Court docket has upheld the dismissal of a KSRTC bus conductor with over 65 instances of misconduct in his document, observing that the penalty of dismissal was not disproportionate on this case. The order was handed on July 29 by a division bench consisting of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Joshi, and was just lately made publicly obtainable.
On this case, Karnataka State Highway Transport Company (KSRTC) officers conducting a verify in 2009 had discovered two passengers travelling with out a ticket, primarily based on which they charged the bus conductor, one Basha, with misconduct. He argued that the passengers have been at fault for having didn’t receive the ticket from him. A show-cause discover was issued to him, highlighting 57 instances of misconduct, of which 56 had been disposed of with a minor penalty. He had then been dismissed.
Basha had obtained a Classes court docket order in his favour on grounds of the punishment being extreme, which was, in flip, overturned by the Karnataka Excessive Court docket ruling in favour of the KSRTC in 2024. The matter had then come earlier than this division bench.
The bench noticed that the one query that needed to be examined was whether or not the punishment doled out was affordable on this case, noting that the misconduct had been established by the inquiry officer. The bench said that whereas a dismissal for failing to gather two tickets gave the impression to be harsh, it needed to be understood within the context of the earlier offences.
The court docket elaborated on this level, “The present trigger discover… had listed out 57 situations of misconduct. Many of the mentioned instances have been of non-issuance of tickets as properly. The appellant was referred to as upon to enhance his conduct however, apparently, there was no enchancment. The variety of instances of misconduct have spiraled to over 65. Given the previous conduct of the appellant, the punishment imposed can’t be thought-about disproportionately extreme.”
The bench upheld the dismissal of the conductor, noting that KSRTC couldn’t be compelled to endure repeated misconduct when the worker had failed to enhance himself.