MUHAMMED FIRDOUZ Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner, who claims to be a public-spirited citizen and a taxpayer has filed this Public Interest Litigation inter alia seeking to quash Exhibit P1 Government Order and to declare that the free bus travel in the ordinary KSRTC buses to all women and transgender persons implemented across the State under the "Priyadarshini Scheme" vide the said G.O. be discontinued.

(2.) Exhibit P1 G.O. dtd. 11/6/2026, has already been implemented by the 1st respondent from 15/6/2026 onwards. The petitioner contends that the said scheme for free travel in ordinary KSRTC buses for women and transgender persons has been put into effect by the Government without conducting any study and without any material to show that any disadvantage was being suffered by the class of people to whom the said scheme is intended to confer benefit. It is alleged that no policy study had been conducted, no assessment undertaken, and no empirical data had been gathered identifying the specific disadvantage sought to be remedied by extending such privilege exclusively to women and transgender people. The relevant scheme, it is submitted, had been born in an election manifesto, had been announced immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, and had been formalised by Exhibit P1 G.O., all of which are without sufficient policy reasoning and hence cannot claim the protection of any constitutional provision. The W.P.(PIL) thus inter alia seeks to quash Exhibit P1 G.O. and to direct that the free bus travel, now extended to a select few of the citizens, shall be put on hold.

(3.) We have heard Sri.M.P.Shameem Ahamed, Advocate for the petitioner and Sri.Jaju Babu, the learned Advocate General for the 1st respondent. Sri.B.S.Swathi Kumar, Advocate, appears for the 2nd respondent, KSRTC.