Train Accidents: Supreme Court Asks Centre To Inform Steps Taken On 'Kavach' & Anti-Collision Systems

Hearing the plea was a Division Bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan, which directed petitioner-Advocate Vishal Tiwari to serve a copy of the petition with the office of the Attorney General R Venkataramani within 2 days.

“Learned Attorney General shall apprise the court on the next date of hearing with respect to the protective measures implemented, or proposed to be implemented, by the government of India, including the Kavach scheme,” the Bench said.

During the hearing, the Bench asked the petitioner if any exercise had been undertaken to ascertain the financial implications of implementing the scheme on pan-India level.

"Everything has correlation with the financial aspect, because ultimately this burden will be passed on to the passengers ofcourse", remarked Justice Surya Kant.

To this, the petitioner replied that the government was running many programmes and the financial aspect shall not come in the way of ensuring public safety.

Notably, the PIL, besides seeking a direction to the respondent-Authorities for implementation of the 'Kavach' scheme, calls for immediate setting up of an expert commission, headed by a retired judge of the court and consisting of technical members, to analyze the current risk and safety parameters in the railway system, and submit a report suggesting modifications.

It also seeks setting up of an enquiry commission to probe into the Odisha Train Accident that took place on June 2, 2023.

Citing the Odisha train accident, the PIL alleges that non-implementation of Kavach system has resulted in massive destruction in the form of loss of life and damage of public property. The same is attributed to negligence of government authorities and their deficiency in commitment to protect fundamental rights of the people of India.

The PIL adds that judicial interference is necessary to “mitigate further consequences”. It also mentions that an Advisory letter was written to the Government in 2023 by the Principal Chief Operations Manager (Southern Railways) to the government for paying attention to the signaling system and rectify flaws in the SWR Zone, and it should have been taken seriously by the government.

'Kavach' helps in case a locomotive pilot ignores signals and over-speeds, as well as in bad weather conditions, claims the petition. It adds, “It was designed to bring a train to a halt automatically if it detects another train on the same line within a specified distance”.

An indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System, 'Kavach' was announced by the government in the 2022 Union budget as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. It facilitates prevention of accidents by controlling the speed of a train by automatic application of brakes in case the loco pilot fails to do so.

Case Title: Vishal Tiwari v. Union of India & Anr. Diary No. 23592/2023

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