The Karnataka High Court has upheld the dismissal of a KSRTC bus conductor with over 65 cases of misconduct in his record, observing that the penalty of dismissal was not disproportionate in this case. The order was passed on July 29 by a division bench consisting of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C M Joshi, and was recently made publicly available.
In this case, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) officials conducting a check in 2009 had found two passengers travelling without a ticket, based on which they charged the bus conductor, one Basha, with misconduct. He argued that the passengers were at fault for having failed to obtain the ticket from him. A show-cause notice was issued to him, highlighting 57 cases of misconduct, of which 56 had been disposed of with a minor penalty. He had then been dismissed.
Basha had obtained a Sessions court order in his favour on grounds of the punishment being excessive, which was, in turn, overturned by the Karnataka High Court ruling in favour of the KSRTC in 2024. The matter had then come before this division bench.
The bench observed that the only question that had to be examined was whether the punishment doled out was reasonable in this case, noting that the misconduct had been established by the inquiry officer. The bench stated that while a dismissal for failing to collect two tickets appeared to be harsh, it had to be understood in the context of the previous offences.
The court elaborated on this point, “The show cause notice… had listed out 57 instances of misconduct. Most of the said cases were of non-issuance of tickets as well. The appellant was called upon to improve his conduct but, apparently, there was no improvement. The number of cases of misconduct have spiraled to over 65. Given the past conduct of the appellant, the punishment imposed cannot be considered disproportionately excessive.”
The bench upheld the dismissal of the conductor, noting that KSRTC could not be compelled to suffer repeated misconduct when the employee had failed to improve himself.