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Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – Hearing a petition highlighting mismanagement and gross negligence by the railway administration in the stampede at the New Delhi Railway station on Saturday that killed 18 people, the Delhi High Court Wednesday asked Indian Railways why it had continued to sell tickets in excess of the number of passengers who could be accommodated in a coach. The public interest litigation by Arth Vidhi, an organisation of a group of lawyers, had sought enforcement of Section 57 of the Railways Act, 1989, which mandates that the administration fix the maximum number of passengers which may be carried in a compartment. 

 

"If you implement a simple thing in a positive manner in letter and spirit, such a situation can be avoided. On rush days you may increase that number to accommodate the rush depending on exigencies which keep on arriving from time to time. But not fixing the strength to be accommodated in a coach, this provision appears to have been neglected all along," said the bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gadela.

 

The court questioned the railways on how many people were present on the day of the stampede on the railway station. "Are you aware of how many lakhs of people were at the station that day? Infrastructurally it may not be possible to control that kind of crowd," said the court. 

 

The petitioner said that airports have mechanisms to know how many people were present in their place, however, Indian Railways had no such mechanism. There is no notification or circular for unreserved class, said the petitioner. If the Railways is not following its own rules, how can we expect security, the petitioner added. "If we go to station right now, we will see a lot of crowd without platform ticket and train ticket. We don’t see any compliance with the Railways Circular requiring platform ticket," said the petitioner. It had sought directions to the Indian Railways to implement their own rules and frame guidelines for issuance of general class unreserved tickets for benefit and safety of general people. 

 

The high court asked the railway board to examine the issues highlighted by the petitioner at the highest level. Thereafter, a short affidavit may be filed by the respondents, giving the details of the board’s decision. The court will now hear the case next on Mar. 26.

 

A stampede at New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday claimed 18 lives and left more than a dozen injured. The incident was triggered by a surge in the number of passengers trying to board trains heading to Prayagraj, where the Maha Kumbh is underway.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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