KARNATAKA STATE ROAD TRANSPORT CORPORATION REPRESENTED BY ITS VICE CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR NOW REPRESENTED BY ITS DEPUTY CHIEF LAW OFFICER Vs. WORKMEN OF KARNATAKA REPR. BY K.S.R.T.C. STAFF AND WORKERS AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE five appeals are preferred against the common order passed by the learned Single Judge quashing the impugned orders and notifications by which the State had established three Road Transport Corporations. BACKGROUND For the purpose of clarity, the parties are referred to as they are referred to in the writ petition.

(2.) THE first petitioner -Workmen of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation represented by KSRTC Staff and Workers Federation is a recognized Federation of affiliated Trade Unions in the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and has been so recognised since 1987 after a ballot. The second petitioner is an employee in 2nd Depot, B.T.S. He has also been working as Secretary of Death Cum Relief Benefit Fund (D.R.B.F.) set up by the Corporation.

(3.) WITH the unprecedented growth of KSRTC and its monolithic structure, a need was felt to streamline and improve the efficiency to serve the ever growing commuter needs. To examine these problems and to devise means of achieving efficiency of operations, the State Government decided to constitute a committee of experts to make an in -depth study of various problems and to report whether creation of four or five subsidiary corporations would improve the working of the Corporation. By an order dated 21.12.1987 an Expert Committee consisting of the Secretary to Government, Food and Transport Department as Chairman; the Secretary to Government -II, Finance Department; the Executive Director, National Transportation Planning and Research Centre, Trivandrum, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, KSRTC and Commissioner for Transport, Bangalore as Members and the Deputy Secretary to Government, Food and Transport Department as Secretary for making a report. The said Committee submitted its report on 11.07.1988. One of the recommendations was that KSRTC had grown into a mammoth organization and it was necessary to examine the question of dividing the Corporation into four or five smaller viable bodies.