SC seeks response from Centre on safety measures in Railways

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought to know from the Centre the measures undertaken by Railways, including implementation of anti collision system 'Kavach', to prevent train accident.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Vishwanathan asked Attorney General R Venkatramani to inform within four weeks about the action being taken or proposed to be taken to ensure safety of Railway passengers.

The court was hearing a PIL by advocate Vishal Tiwari.

The bench asked the petitioner, “Is there any exercise undertaken regarding the financial implication of Kavach, in case, it is introduced on pan-India basis? Everything has a correlation with the financial aspect because ultimately this burden will be passed on to the passengers”.

Tiwari said government is running so many projects and financial aspect should not come in the way when the matter is regarding safety of people. He said government should apprise the court on what steps it has taken regarding safety of passengers.

After hearing submissions, the bench, in its order, said the PIL raises an issue of safety/protection measures with respect to train accidents and it is also pointed out that government of India has approved Kavach system to prevent train accidents.

“At this stage, we direct the petitioner to hand over a copy of the writ petition to the office of AG…the AG shall appraise the court on next date of hearing with respect to protective measures implemented or proposed to be implemented by government of India, including the Kavach scheme," the bench said.

The court posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks.

The plea also sought a direction to set up an expert commission headed by a retired judge of the top court to conduct a time-bound probe into the Odisha train accident on June 2, 2023, which claimed lives of over 288 people and left thousand others injured.

On 23 March 2022, the Ministry of Railways announced a significant step towards enhancing the safety of train operations in India with the development of the Indigenous Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System called Kavach.

It is absolute necessary to implement the model of Kavach in every rail line and train carrier at the earliest without any technical fault. It is relevant to ask as to why this system was not applied to the trains yet, the plea asked.

Tiwari also sought a direction for analysing and reviewing the current risk and safety parameters in the railway system and to suggest systematic modifications for strengthening it.

The petitioner said the accident showed the deep gross negligence perpetrated by the authorities leading to violation of right to life and liberty of citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.