Lucknow, March 23 The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday stayed the suspension of a regional transport officer (RTO) from Aligarh, in connection with a school bus accident in which a child was killed.
The court directed the state government to file its counter affidavit within four weeks and listed the matter for hearing in the week commencing April 20.
A bench of Justice Manish Mathur passed the interim order on a writ petition filed by RTO Vandana, challenging the suspension order of March 1, 2026.
The suspension was ordered after a departmental inquiry following the accident, which took place on February 28, 2026. The child had died after allegedly falling through a damaged portion of the bus' floor.
Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Gaurav Mehrotra argued that while the incident was unfortunate, the RTO had no direct role in it.
He contended that inspection of vehicles was the responsibility of designated inspecting officers and not of the RTO, and therefore no misconduct could be attributed to her.
The state counsel was unable to effectively rebut the petitioner's arguments on key aspects.
After hearing both sides, the court said that the matter required detailed consideration.
While staying the operation of the suspension order, the court clarified that there would be no bar on the continuation or conclusion of departmental inquiry proceedings against the petitioner.