The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), along with the State and Centre, on a petition filed by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya. The petition seeks a direction to the BMRCL to immediately publish the Fare Fixation Committee Report chaired by former Justice R Tharani. The bench of Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav issued notice to the respondents, returnable a week after next week.
During the hearing, the court orally remarked, “You are so powerful you cannot get the BMRCL to do that much also?”
In response, the counsel for Surya submitted, “Max we can do is write to them, even the public is also behind them, we meet the Managing Director of BMRCL directly, but they are not responding. They are saying that they are waiting for the state government's approval. I fail to understand that no discretion can be exercised by BMRCL, the act does not give them any discretion.”
According to the plea, Surya, as a Member of Parliament representing the constituency served by Namma Metro, had made three written requests to BMRCL on April 28, 2025, May 8, 2025, and May 15, 2025, seeking publication of the Fare Fixation Committee report. However, there has been no response from BMRCL. The petition highlights that Surya, being a regular commuter of the metro for personal and professional purposes, is directly impacted by the fare decisions of BMRCL.
The Fare Fixation Committee had reportedly submitted its recommendations on December 16, 2024, after examining metro fare systems in India and abroad, including visits to Singapore and Hong Kong. BMRCL had issued a media release on February 8, 2025, informing the public about the receipt of the report.
Based on those recommendations, BMRCL implemented a significant fare hike on February 9, 2025, with increases of up to 100% in certain cases, raising the maximum fare from Rs. 60 to Rs. 90. This made Namma Metro the most expensive metro service in India at the time.
Following public protests and Surya’s intervention, BMRCL revised the fare structure on February 14, 2025, limiting the maximum hike to around 71%, as mentioned in the plea.
It was submitted that “BMRCL, being an instrumentality of the state, must ensure that its policy decisions ought not to be exercised in an unreasonable and unfair manner so as to create hardship for the public at large. Furthermore, rule of reason, rule against arbitrariness, rules of fair play and natural justice are part of the rule of law applicable on actions taken by state instrumentalities in dealing with citizens.”
The petition argued that Surya and other citizens of Bengaluru have a legitimate expectation of transparency in BMRCL's functioning, as other metro corporations across the country — including those in Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad — have published their fare committee reports in the public domain.
The failure of BMRCL to release the report despite multiple reminders is described as arbitrary and lacking any rational justification in the petition.
Case Title: LS Tejasvi Surya vs Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited & Others
Case Number: WP 19524/2025
Appearance: Advocates Anirudh A Kulkarni, Akshay S Vasist, Aravind Suchindran, Vasista R represented the petitioner