Madras High Court dismisses PIL challenging Vetri Payanam scheme

Madras High Court on Monday threw out a PIL against the Vetri Payanam scheme, giving free travel to women and transgender people in mofussil buses.

The first bench, headed by Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan, told N Kalamani, a private bus operator from Erode, to go after the government order, not the Assembly announcement.

The court saw the order came on Oct 1 and started working the next day. The PIL was dropped as withdrawn, with permission to seek another legal remedy later.

Kalamani argued private operators would lose both male and female passengers, since families often travel together and many government buses run the same routes.