Supreme Court Flags Insufficient Budgetary Allocation To Railways, Says Common Man's Safety Important

The Supreme Court recently flagged insufficiency of budget allocation towards betterment of Railways in India and voiced its expectation for better budgetary allocation so that common man's safety is prioritized."Nothing is more important than the safety and security of the common man, who travels and reposes trust in the Railways and Railways is not an organization to make investment elsewhere", a bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R Mahadevan observed.Broadly, in the case concerned, the Court is considering the issue of safety in Railways under two heads - taking care of unmanned crossings and building of railway over-bridges and under-bridges, and 'Kavach', the automatic/automated safety system installed on rail tracks to prevent untoward incidents due to human error.The issues were taken up after concerns were highlighted in a railway accident compensation case by Senior Advocate Shikhil Suri (Amicus Curiae). Subsequently, the Court took note of another issue related to insurance facility/option being limited to online ticket purchasers and not extending to those who purchase tickets over the counter.In the latest order, the Court observed,"The affidavit filed by the Railways indicates that the largest chunk used of the Budget allocation is for investment in PSUs/JV/SPVs, which in the tentative view of the Court is absolutely unacceptable."The bench interacted with the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety, who was present in Court and explained that if the Level Crossing Gates are interlocked, the same would entail much lesser cost and would be completed in a much lesser span of time. Further, when Kavach will be installed all over the Railway grid/network, the said interlocking would make the Kavach much effective.Adjourning the matter, to enable ASG Vikramjit Banerjee to come back with instructions, the bench stated,"We expect that the authorities concerned would be more pragmatic and ensure that substantial amount of the Budget allocation is invested for the betterment of the Railways directly into the infrastructure and among such, safety and security takes priority."In January, the Court had emphasized that a balancing act was required on the part of Railways to ensure that insurance facility/option is extended to "all consumers/passengers", dehors reference to the mode of booking, "so long as the tickets are genuinely procured and utilised". A specific affidavit was called from the Union stipulating the exact figure of the budgetary allocation made to the Ministry of Railways by Parliament for the last three years; the internal allocation of funds by the Ministry of Railways under various heads, and the actual expenditure incurred on each and every head, including the latest figures, to the extent available, for the Financial Year 2025-2026. The Court further asked the ASG to take instructions from the Railways on an apparent mismatch between the tentative completion period for safety works till 2042-43 and the projected budgetary allocations.Appearance: ASG Vikramjit Banerjee; Senior Advocates Shikhil Suri (Amicus Curiae) and Nachiketa JoshiCase Title: Union of India v. Radha Yadav, Miscellaneous Application No.741-742/2019Click here to read the order

Supreme Court Flags Insufficient Budgetary Allocation To Railways, Says Common Man's Safety Important

Debby Jain

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