Declares ‘Vettri Payanam’ scheme unconstitutional, urges private bus operator in Madras High Court

Image used to represent | Photo credit: M. Moorthy

A case has been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the constitutionality of the Tamil Nadu government’s “Vettri Payanam” (victory travel) scheme, which offers fare-free travel to women and trans women on 12,695 government buses across the state.

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

The petitioner argued that private bus operators would not only lose women but also men as families would naturally prefer to travel together in government buses in which women do not have to pay any fare.

A writ petition urging the court to declare the Vettri Payanam scheme unconstitutional came up for hearing on Monday (October 5, 2026) before a first division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan.

Explaining her case in detail, the complainant stated that she is a widow with two daughters to look after. It held the license to operate buses on the 47 km route from Erode to Vellithiruppur and another 88 km route from Kakapalayam to Andhiyur.

The appellant employed about 15 people and their families were also dependent on her transport business. She was worried that hardly any passengers would board her buses on both the routes as a significant number of government buses were plying on those routes.

She said the state government has pledged to spend a whopping ₹6,000 crore annually to compensate state transport companies under the Vettri Payanam scheme, which aims to benefit 84.32 crore women daily.

However, it claimed that the request of the Federation of Tamil Nadu Bus Operators’ Associations on July 22, 2026 to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to extend the scheme to private bus operators also did not yield the desired result.

Ms Kalamani said that not collecting any fare from only passengers on government buses would be contrary to the principle of ensuring a level playing field in the bus industry and thereby violate Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.

Though ‘Vettri Payanam’ was an extension of the existing ‘Vidiyal Payanam’ scheme introduced by the previous DMK regime, the petitioner said the previous scheme was limited in scope and did not affect private operators much.

The petitioner also relied on various provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and also the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 to contend that collection of fare from passengers is mandatory and that the Government cannot announce fareless travel.

Further, contending that the scheme was introduced on the basis of a notification made by the Chief Minister under Article 110 in the Legislature and without the issuance of any Government Order, the petitioner submitted that such an act is violative of Article 161 of the Constitution.

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

Published – October 4, 2026 11:03 AM IST