A move by the Pub­lic Trans­port Ser­vice Cor­po­ra­tion (PTSC) to im­ple­ment a $15,000 li­cens­ing fee for ex­cur­sion bus own­ers has been ruled to be un­law­ful.

In a judg­ment de­liv­ered on Mon­day (June 2, 2025), High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad up­held a law­suit brought by the Pri­vate Bus Own­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion and its pres­i­dent, Naz­im Mo­hammed.

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad ruled that the op­er­a­tors had a le­git­i­mate ex­pec­ta­tion that the fee, which was not charged be­tween 2004 and 2023, would not be im­ple­ment­ed with­out jus­ti­fi­ca­tion or con­sul­ta­tion.

He found that the fee was un­rea­son­able and dis­pro­por­tion­ate as maxi taxi own­ers are charged $2,400.

He al­so ruled that the con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of Mo­hammed and his fel­low mem­bers to en­joy­ment of their prop­er­ty and pro­tec­tion of the law were breached.

Jus­tice Seep­er­sad or­dered nom­i­nal dam­ages for the As­so­ci­a­tion and Mo­hammed, as he not­ed they had no ev­i­dence of loss as the Cor­po­ra­tion held off on charg­ing the fee af­ter they filed the case.

How­ev­er, he did or­der $75,000 in vin­di­ca­to­ry dam­ages for Mo­hammed and the As­so­ci­a­tion based on PTSC's han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion.