Kochi: Acting on an appeal filed by the Kerala government, a division bench of the Kerala High Court stayed a single bench order that had allowed the private bus operators to collect the increased fare from passengers.
It was on June 9, a single bench of the High Court on a petition of an organisation representing private bus owners, had stayed the government order that asked for reverting to the normal bus charges for two weeks.
On May 19, the state government had allowed public transport with one person in each seat and hiked the charges by 50 per cent.
Following the lockdown relaxation, the state government came out with a fresh order withdrawing their earlier order and asked the private sector bus operators to revert to the old charges.
As a result the minimum fare was brought down from Rs 12 to Rs 8, but after the single bench order came Rs 12 again again became the minimum charge. Now that the division bench has stayed the single bench order, the minimum fares will be Rs 8, bringing relief to the commuters.