The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Transport Department to file a report on the incidents of ticket books going missing in State Transport Corporations in Tamil Nadu in the past five years and the steps taken by the management to prevent them.
Asking the department to work out the possibility of providing safety boxes to conductors in order to avoid such incidents in future, Justice B. Pugalendhi posted the matter for hearing to November 2.
The court was hearing the petitions filed by V. Ashok of Madurai and U. M. Arulkumar of Ramanathapuram. The petitioners were working as conductors in Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation and State Express Transport Corporation respectively.
While they were on duty, some unused ticket books were found missing. They were placed under suspension and issued with a charge memo. Pending departmental proceedings, their respective Branch Managers ordered recovery of the face value of the unused ticket books from the salary of the petitioners. Aggrieved over the order, the petitioners filed the petitions.
The petitioners said there were no locker facilities available inside the bus. They said they immediately reported the incidents to their respective Branch Managers and thereafter, lodged police complaints regarding the ticket books going missing.
The court said it was reported that such incidents were taking place often. On the other hand, the settlement under Section 12(3) of the Industrial Disputes Act, stipulated that no recovery could be made in the case of theft, robbery and accident, the court said and sought a report.
Published - October 21, 2026 08:04 pm IST