Cluster bus conductors to go to passengers to collect fare, not so in DTC: HC told

The AAP government has made it mandatory for conductors in cluster buses to go to passengers and collect fare, but the same is not a requirement in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses, the Delhi High Court was told on Tuesday.

The submission was made before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar during the hearing of a PIL seeking appropriate rules or guidelines making it mandatory for conductors to issue tickets to all passengers who board a bus by going to each of them.

The petition, filed by Delhi resident Santosh Kumar through advocate Jose Abraham, had said conductors were not concerned with the difficulties faced by women with babies, physically-disabled people and senior citizens who have to leave their seats and move to the rear of a bus to buy a ticket.

The Delhi government told the court that in their agreement with cluster bus concessionaires, there is a clause making it mandatory for conductors to go from passenger to passenger to collect fare and issue tickets.

However, the DTC told the court that its bus conductors cannot move around the bus collecting fare and disbursing tickets to passengers.

Taking note of the submissions by the government, represented by its additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose, and the DTC, the court said there "cannot be any hard and fast rule that conductors have to go from person to person collecting fare".

The court said it was not going to issue any direction on fare collection by conductors and disposed of the plea by Santosh Kumar.