Kochi: The Kerala High Court has stayed the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC)’s decision to cut down the concession in travel fares for students of CBSE schools.
According to clause 4 of the KSRTC's February 27 memorandum, the students of self-financing colleges, private unaided, or CBSE schools will only be given a 30% discount on their tickets. The students will have to pay 35% of the ticket rate and the remaining 35% will be charged to the school management.
The High Court said that the petitioner association of managers of CBSE schools made out a prima facie case for an interim order and stayed the operation of clause 4 of the memorandum for one month.
The court also issued notice to the Kerala government and the KSRTC, represented by advocate Deepu Thankan, seeking their stand on the claims in the petition by August 9, the next date of the hearing.
The petitioner association, in its plea, claimed that the memorandum was classifying students based on the institutions in which they study and offering different rates of concessions.
“Such a classification among the students traveling in the same bus is discriminatory and arbitrary”
“There is no authority to the 3rd respondent (KSRTC) to impose such a condition on the management of CBSE/ICSE schools,” the petition has contended.
With inputs from PTI