“In a litigative world, one cannot apply the concept of model employer,” the Madras High Court has said and held that a State Transport Corporation is entitled to take disciplinary action against its driver for having caused a road accident despite taking a completely contrary stand before a motor accident claims tribunal.
A Full Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarty and Justice V. Lakshminarayanan ruled so, while answering a reference made in a writ petition pending in the High Court since 2004, against the termination of service of a T.N. State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) driver.
The writ petitioner V. Syril Sundararaj was driving an SETC bus from Tiruchi to Nagercoil in 1992, when it collided with a goods van, proceeding from Tiruchendur to Coimbatore, near Virudhunagar leading to the death of five persons and injuries to five others, including the petitioner.
