NEW DELHI: In the wake of the recent stampede at New Delhi railway station that led to 18 deaths, Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Indian Railways to address the sale of excess tickets beyond the number of passengers that can be accommodated in a coach.
“If you fix the number of passengers to be accommodated in a coach, then why does the number of tickets sold exceed that number? That’s the problem,” a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela told Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, representing the Railways.
The court was hearing a PIL over the recent stampede at the New Delhi railway station and asked the authorities to file an affidavit giving details of measures taken on these issues. The plea sought the implementation of existing provisions by Railways that may have helped avoid such incidents and cited sections 57 and 147 of the Railway Act that deal with overcrowding.
“If you could implement a simple thing, such situations could be avoided… but not fixing the strength to be accommodated in a particular coach, this provision appears to have been neglected all along,” HC remarked, while referring to Section 57 of the Railways Act, which says every railway administration must fix the maximum number of passengers allowed in each compartment of every carriage type.
SG Mehta submitted that the PIL was not taken in an adversarial manner and the Railways is bound to follow the law. He said there was an “unprecedented” situation and assured the court that the issues raised in the PIL would be considered at the highest level. “We are following the law, if there are any lacunae etc that can be taken care of,” Mehta assured the court.
During the hearing, the HC also pointed out that as per rules, the number of passengers that can be carried in each compartment should be “conspicuously displayed outside each compartment”. It asked the SG to show what steps Railways will take to implement existing laws that limit the number of passengers in coaches and penalise persons entering without authority.
“Let the issues raised in the petition be examined, as suggested by the SG, at the highest level at the Railway Board and thereafter an affidavit be filed giving details of the decisions taken by the Railway Board,” the court directed, posting the matter for next month.
HC noted that the PIL – filed by Arth Vidhi, an organisation of legal and business professionals – was not confined to the recent incident of the stampede as it sought implementation of the existing legal provisions with respect to the maximum number of passengers in a compartment and the sale of platform tickets. Had the legal provisions perhaps been implemented adequately, incidents such as the stampede could have been avoided, it added.