Declare ‘Vettri Payanam’ scheme unconstitutional, urges private bus operator before Madras High Court

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Representational image. | Photo Credit: Ramakrishna G.

A writ petition has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the constitutional validity of Tamil Nadu government’s ‘Vettri Payanam’ (victorious travel) scheme which offers no-fare travel for women and transwomen passengers in 12,695 government buses across the State.

A private bus operator N. Kalamani from Bhavani Taluk in Erode district has approached the Court complaining the scheme would severely affect private transporters who may suffer heavy losses and have no option but to wind up their business.

The petitioner claimed private bus operators would not only stand to lose women passengers but also the men because families would naturally prefer to travel together in government buses in which the women need not pay any fare.

The writ petition, urging the Court to declare the Vettri Payanam scheme as unconstitutional, has been listed for hearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan on Monday (October 5, 2026).

Explaining her case in detail, the petitioner said, she was a widow who had two daughters to take care of. She held permits to operate buses on the 47-km route from Erode to Vellithiruppur and another 88-km route from Kakapalayam to Andhiyur.

The petitioner had employed about 15 people and their families too were dependant on her transport business. She feared hardly any passenger would step into her buses on the two routes since significant number of government buses were operated in those routes.

She said, the State government had come forward to spend a whopping amount of ₹6,000 crore a year for compensating the State transport corporations towards the Vettri Payanam scheme aimed at benefitting 84.32 lakh women on a daily basis.

However, a request made by the Federation of Bus Operators Associations of Tamil Nadu to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay on July 22, 2026 for extending the scheme to private bus operators too did not yield the desired result, she claimed.

Ms. Kalamani said, not collecting any fare from women passengers in government buses alone would go against the principle of ensuring a level playing field in the bus transport sector and thereby violate Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.

Though ‘Vettri Payanam’ was an expansion of the existing ‘Vidiyal Payanam’ scheme introduced by the previous DMK regime, the petitioner said, the previous scheme was limited in its scope and did not affect the private operators to a great extent.

The petitioner also relied upon various provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 as well as the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 to contend that collection of fare from the passengers was mandatory and that the government could not announce no-fare travel.

Further, claiming the scheme had been implemented on the basis of an announcement made by the Chief Minister under Rule 110 in the Legislative Assembly and without issuing any Government Order, the petitioner said, such act offends Article 161 of the Constitution.

She urged the Court to declare the Chief Minister’s announcement, published by the Information and Public Relations Department (DIPR) on August 24, 2026 as unconstitutional and also grant an interim stay to it until the disposal of her writ petition.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.