Madras HC Issues Notice On Plea Seeking Online Booking Facility For Railway Concessional Tickets

The Madras High Court on Friday issued notice to the Ministry of Railways and the Railway Board on a petition seeking online booking facility for concessional tickets in the official website of IRCTC.

A division bench of Justice Subbaiah and Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy has asked the Railway Board and the Central Government to respond within four weeks.

Dr. Mohamed Khader Meeran, a native of Trichy filed the Public Interest Litigation (WP No. 8820/2020) stating that more than 2 lakh tickets were sold on May 21 without making the facility for availing concession tickets on IRCTC website.

It was stated that  the Railways Board decided to run 200 special trains from June 1 for the convenience of passengers. The Railway Board stated that these special trains will only offer concessionary fares to Divyangjan and Patients Category Passengers (Passengers suffering from any disease among 11 sets of diseases mentioned under railway concession rules). The petitioner argued that the IRCTC did not allow facility for online booking of concessional tickets.  

The petitioner argued that announcing a special concession for the patients and not providing the facility for availing concession is not fair. He pleaded for prompt arrangement of the facility to avail patients' category concessions through IRCTC, refund the remaining fare to rest of the patient category passengers who have booked it without receiving the concession, and also to make facility to book all concession category tickets ( currently permitted under railway rules) through online mode in IRCTC website after initiation of regular train services.

 "Patients suffering from heart and kidney diseases are vulnerable during this corona pandemic. Their lives will be at risk, if they are compelled to visit reservation counter to avail concession. So, IRCTC website need to be changed accordingly to provide concessionary booking facility for patients. It will help the government to identify the vulnerable group of passengers and could take effort to carry out necessary steps to safeguard their lives by quarantine and special follow-up visits. Gathering this information will serve as a rich data source for carrying out epidemiological and clinical research in the future", the plea read.

On behalf of the petitioner, advocates Mr. Syed Kaleesha and Mr. Rahman Sheriff appeared. 

"There are many concessionary benefits offered by Indian railways for senior citizens, patients, widows, students, farmers and doctors in train tickets. However, the IRCTC website offers concession facility only for senior citizens and the differently-abled (Divyangjan). Other category passengers can book the concession ticket only at the reservation center, not through IRCTC. We have therefore requested the Railways to facilitate online booking of all concessionary travel tickets through IRCTC in the petition", submitted petitioner's counsel.