'You Want Us To Decide Which Station A Train Stops At?' : Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Additional Stop For 'Vande Bharat' Train

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by a lawyer against the Kerala High Court's dismissal of a plea to direct the Southern Railways to permit a stop for the 'Vande Bharat Train Service' at Tirur Railway Station in Malappuram District.

At the very outset, the bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra expressed its disinclination towards entertaining the plea. CJI DY Chandrachud remarked–

"Now you want us to decide which station a train stops at? Do we will also take a call on stations from Delhi to Mumbai Rajdhani?"

Noting that it was a policy matter, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea. 

The Division Bench of the Kerala High Court comprising Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas and Justice C. Jayachandran, while dismissing the plea, had observed that there was no public interest espoused in the writ petition, and that providing stops for a train was a matter that had to be determined by the Railways, and that no person had a vested right to demand the same. The Bench in its Order dated April 28, 2023, had categorically laid down that if stops were to be provided on demand by public, the term "express train" would itself become a misnomer.

The SLP moved through Advocate Sriram P. averred that Malappuram District is one of the most densely populated districts of the State of Kerala, with a significant number of people depending on the train service for their travel purpose . It was submitted that as per the first schedules of train stops initially announced by the Indian railway, Tirur Railway station was allotted a stop on behalf of Malappuram District, but was subsequently called back by the Indian Railways, and another railway station namely Shornur in Palakkad district was allotted in its place. The petitioner thus alleged that the said call back was due to political reasons, and is unfair.

The petitioner placed reliance on the the population of Tirur District in Malappuram and Shornur District in Palakkad, as revealed by the 2011 Census Report, to buttress the argument that Tirur is a major district with dense population and the denial of the railway stop there would amount to absolute ignorance and hindrance of effective transport facilities to the entire people of the district.

Further, the petitioner averred that the Shornur Railway Station is roughly 56 KM from Tirur, and that it would be difficult for the people from Malappuram District to travel such distance. The petitioner argued that the same would cause "relentless hardships to the people living in the locality including the petitioner, especially to working individuals and aged people".

Case Title: P.T. Sheejish v. Union of India & Ors.