[Sarbrienna]

The Madras high court has permitted filing of another PIL for further directions to curb the ‘bus day’ menace in the city.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, asked advocate R Krishnamurthy to come up with a regular petition when the latter brought the menace to the notice of the bench on Friday. In the morning, when the court assembled for the day, the advocate furnished a copy of The Times of India to the court and said the court must intervene to end incidents such as Thursday’s foiled ‘bus day’ bid by the Pachaiyappa’s College students and the subsequent violence unleashed by them on the general public.

Krishnamurthy said despite a specific order by the high court last year, the authorities had failed to curb the practice this year. It has resulted in a stone-throwing incident that left several members of the public, including a child injured, he said.

Chief Justice Eqbal, on his part, lamented that it was a fraction of students and lawyers that indulge in undesirable activities, bringing disrepute to the entire academic and legal fraternity.

This time last year, the same bench had banned the ‘bus day’ celebrations in the city and had directed the director-general of police as well as the city commissioner of police to ensure that no such disturbances were allowed to be organized in future. This year, already students from at least two colleges had hijacked buses and conducted ‘bus day’ events. On Thursday, when the Pachaiyappa’s College students attempted to take over an MTC bus at Koyambedu terminus, the bid was foiled by police. Enraged at denial of permission, a large number of students started pelting stones at buses and commuters from inside their campus on Poonamallee Road.

-times of india