The Punjab and Haryana high court has soughtresponse from Punjab transport minister Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and thestate government on a plea filed against the cancelled route permits of busesowned by firms of SAD leader Hardeep Singh Dhillon.
The petition has been filed by New Deep BusService through partner Hardeep Singh Dhillon against the cancellation of routepermits.
Taking up the petition, the Bench of JusticeAjay Tewari and Justice Pankaj Jain also put the State of Punjab and thetransport department on notice.
“The court has issued notice to the transportminister and others and sought their response,” operator’s counsel Rohit Soodsaid. The detailed order is awaited.
In its petition filed through counsel RohitSud and Amandeep Singh Talwar, the petitioner firm, New Deep Bus Service, throughpartner Hardeep Singh Dhillon has sought the quashing of orders dated November12, whereby the permits granted to the petitioners were cancelled, alleging itto be “illegally, arbitrarily and with mala fide intent”.
The petitioner has alleged that one of thepartners of the petitioner’s firm, Hardeep Singh Dhillon, was a member of theShiromani Akali Dal and was the contesting candidate for the party againstCongress candidate, who was now the transport minister.
“In furtherance of his political vendetta,the respondent has utilized the State machinery to scuttle the business of thepetitioners by getting the impugned orders passed. The impugned orders havepurportedly been passed under Section 103 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, whichprovides no power or jurisdiction to take action for violation of condition ofa permit issued under Chapter V of the MV Act,” added the petitioner.
It is being told that Amarinder Singh RajaWarring himself was checking the buses on the roads and was confiscating more than50 buses as well as canceling their Licenses after finding irregularities. Duringthis time, buses of transport companies, especially those belonging to theBadal Family, were being taken mostly on the target.