Some of the past laws enacted by the Parliament and the State Assemblies had continued to bind the governments to archaic public sector dominance at the cost of private initiative. And the bus transport system was one such sector. Karnataka’s KSRTC is one such. During the heydays of Emergency, private bus transport businesses were overnight nationalised. And thereafter, State Transport Corporations became a sort of Frankenstein and despite gigantic losses and unbearable inefficiencies, blackmailed the governments to maintain them.
Realising this, the State Government decided to undo the law that nationalised the transport services in 1976. The State Government passed a new law in 2003 to enable private players to enter bus transport enterprise. But it was stopped from doing so by vested groups, including KSRTC. They went on an appeal to the High Court challenging the 2003 Act.
