Trackmen union seeks legal aid from Rahul Gandhi to fight against Railway Board in Supreme Court

New Delhi: The All India Railway Trackmaintainers Union (AIRTU) has written to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, seeking legal assistance to contest a legal battle against the Railway Board in the Supreme Court over the issue of trade union elections.

The Railway Board on November 29, 2024, filed a petition in the top court and got a stay on a Bombay High Court order which had allowed the AIRTU to contest the union elections.

The Board said that the AIRTU is unrecognised and when it was not eligible to contest the secret ballot elections as per the rules, it tried to contest the elections by suppressing and not submitting full facts before the high court.

"This attempt of the AIRTU was challenged by the Ministry of Railways before the Hon'ble Supreme Court by way of a Special Leave Petition. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has stayed the order of the high court. The SLP is still sub-judice.

"However, the elections have been held all over Indian Railways on 4th, 5th, and 6th of December," Dilip Kumar, Executive Director (Information & Publicity), Railway Board, said.

Though the elections were held on December 4, 5 and 6 and the results will be declared on December 12, the union wants the announcement of the results to be stayed, and the election process to be redone permitting it to participate.

"We humbly seek your esteemed legal assistance in preparing and presenting our case, which is scheduled for hearing before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India on 10th December 2024," Chand Mohammad, national working president of AIRTU, said in his letter dated December 4 to Gandhi.

The AIRTU's problem started on November 11, 2024, when the competent authority of the Railway Board rejected its nomination forms on the solitary ground that the name is deceptive and that it "does not indicate that it represents all the categories of the employees working in the non-gazetted departments".

The track maintainers union challenged the authority's decision in the Bombay High Court which allowed it to contest elections and stayed the Board's order saying that prima facie, the Railway Board superficially considered the status of the petitioner (AIRTU) union.

The Board challenged the high court's decision in the Supreme Court and got a stay order.

"Now, the union's challenge against these actions is listed for hearing in the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 10th December 2024. It is evident that the railway administration is attempting to suppress the union's rights and prevent this case from being fairly adjudicated," Mohammad wrote in the letter to Gandhi.

"Your support will serve justice and significantly impact the lives and rights of over three lakh railway track maintainers across the country," Mohammad added.

Satish Yadav, general secretary of AIRTU, Western Railway, claimed that initially the case was listed for hearing on December 3, 2024, a day before the election process started but later "we came to know that it was deleted from the list".

"Our lawyer informed us that due to the huge pressure of other cases, our case was deleted from the list for Dec 3. Now it will be heard on December 10 and we hope that the top court will give us some relief in the interest of justice," Yadav said.