The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court quashed compensation order passed against Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) employee, holding that consumer grievances cannot be reframed as human rights violations to invoke Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) jurisdiction.
The Court held that a complaint alleging deficiency in service by a public transport corporation, including rude behaviour of the crew and non-issuance of a ticket, is a consumer dispute and does not constitute a violation of human rights. The State Human Rights Commission has no jurisdiction to entertain such complaints or award compensation, and the aggrieved passenger must approach the Consumer Forum for redressal.
The Division Bench comprising Justice M. Dhandapani and Justice N. Dilip Kumar observed that the dispute between the petitioner and the third respondent was essentially a consumer dispute arising out of the alleged non-issuance of a travel ticket and the alleged conduct of the driver and conductor during the course of the journey. The grievance raised by the private respondent was in the nature of a consumer grievance and therefore, the appropriate remedy, if any, would lie before the competent Consumer Forum. The State Human Rights Commission, therefore, ought not to have entertained the complaint and imposed compensation in exercise of its jurisdiction.
A perusal of the impugned order showed that the Commission had proceeded substantially on the basis of the dispute relating to the bus journey, the issuance of the travel ticket and the records maintained by the second respondent-Corporation. The complaint made by the third respondent essentially related to a consumer grievance arising out of the alleged deficiency in service and the conduct of the crew of the bus, which could not have been treated, in the facts and circumstances of the present case, as a complaint involving violation of human rights warranting the imposition of compensation by the State Human Rights Commission.
Briefly, the petitioner, S. Chidambara Selvan, was an employee of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Tirunelveli) Ltd., Nagercoil Region. The third respondent, N. Ramesh Kumar, had filed a complaint before the Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission alleging that the petitioner had behaved rudely with him while he was travelling as a passenger in a bus bearing Registration No. TN 74 N 1657, plying on Route No. 2V. According to the third respondent, on Jan 16, 2016, while he was travelling in the said bus, he was forcibly pushed out of the bus by the driver and conductor, and a travel ticket was not issued to him.
In response to the complaint, the second respondent-Corporation filed its counter before the State Human Rights Commission and marked documents as exhibits, including the route map and the bus travel records consisting of five sheets. However, the State Human Rights Commission, without properly appreciating the materials available on record, came to the conclusion that the route map had been prepared subsequently only for the purpose of defeating the claim made by the third respondent. On that basis, the Commission concluded that there was a violation of human rights and directed payment of compensation of Rs. 30,000/-.
