Four TNSTC buses attached
Judicial staff on Thursday attached four town buses belonging to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) following its failure to compensate the family of an accident victim.According to the counsel for the petitioner, A. Shridhar Murthy, Thenkarai panchayat councillor Duraisamy was killed in a road accident involving a TNSTC bus on January 21, 2005. The legal heirs of the victim, namely his wife Vasanthamani and sons Senthilkumar and Venkatesh filed a case seeking compensation from the TNSTC on October 13, 2005. The Judge of the Essential Commodities Court, K. Pandurangan, on August 10, 2006 passed an order asking the TNSTC to pay Rs. 5.77 lakh with 7.5 per cent interest from the date of petition to the date of disbursement besides Rs. 22,231 towards the legal cost. The court directed the TNSTC to pay the compensation within 30 days.Following the failure of the TNSTC to pay the compensation on March 23, 2007, the counsel for the petitioner filed an execution petition which came up for hearing before the Judge of the Essential Commodities Court, S. Balakrishnan. The counsel for TNSTC cited reasons for the delay in settlement of the compensation. After giving four months time, the court on July 19 ordered for attachment of seven buses plying on route number 7. The order was executed on Thursday. The judicial staff along with the advocate attached four TNSTC town buses on route number 7. The court staff asked the passengers to disembark from the buses and they were then brought to the court complex. The passengers said that they were forced to go through hardship since the buses plying on routes were attached rather than attaching buses from the depots.
