Karnataka High Court Quashes Case Against IIT Graduate Who Developed Software Tool To Reduce Time For Booking Railway Tatkal Tickets

The Karnataka High Court has quashed the criminal proceedings initiated under the Railways Act against an IIT Graduate and startup founder, who developed a software tool using which Railway Tatkal tickets would be generated within 45 seconds instead of the usual 5 to 7 minutes it would take on the railway website.

A single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna allowed the petition filed by Gaurav Dhake who was charged under Section 143 of the Railways act, alleging that he had illegally procured and distributed railway tickets.

The court said “The petitioner has neither procured nor supplied tickets. All that the petitioner has done was creation of an extension to the IRCTC website. That extension would speed up the process of securing Tatkal confirmation of those potential travellers and the period of 7 minutes is said to have been reduced to 40 seconds. It would undoubtedly benefit all the public.”

Dhake had developed a web extension/app that would auto-fill details of a potential traveller on the IRCTC website to expedite the process of booking a Tatkal ticket. Initially the petitioner was doing it for free but in February 2020, the petitioner limited the bookings that would be booked through his extension to 10 (to prevent agents from bulk ticketing) and charged Rs 30 per booking (to provide authenticity).

The railways then issued a notice to him on 29-09-2020 and three years later after registration of crime filed the final report.

The petitioner argued that he has neither procured nor distributed railway tickets as is necessary under Section 143 of the Act. Thus, permitting further proceedings would become an abuse of the process of law and result in miscarriage of justice.

The railways opposed the plea saying the concerned Court has now taken cognizance of the offence and thus further proceedings should be permitted to be continued. Moreover, when the Railway Protection Force Police had questioned the petitioner he had confessed that he had made money worth Rs 12,49,710, profit by charging a fee of Rs 30 per e-ticket.

Findings:

The bench on going through the records noted that unless the ingredients of Section 143 are met, the crime itself could not have been registered. The Railway Police did not file their final report despite the passage of 3 years and repeated show cause notices were issued by the concerned Court.

Then it said “The petitioner has not indulged in unauthorised carrying on of business of procuring and supplying of railway tickets. Finding no ingredient of offence under Section 143 of the Act, permitting further proceedings would run counter to law.”

Placing reliance on the High Court of Kerala judgment in the case of Mathew K.Cherian v. State Of Kerala, (2016), the court said “The facts obtaining before the High Court of Kerala were similar to the one that are obtaining in the case at hand. I am in complete agreement with what is held by the Kerala High Court. Therefore, finding no warrant to permit continuance of the proceedings against the petitioner, I deem it appropriate to exercise my jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C., and obliterate the crime against the petitioner.”

Appearance: Advocate Rohan Kothari a/w Advocate Sathvik Upadhya.

Advocate Ajay Prabhu M for Respondent

Citation No: 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 397

Case Title: Gaurav Dahake AND Union of India

Case No: CRIMINAL PETITION No.2926 OF 2024

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