High Court raps Railways over Delhi station stampede: 'Why tickets sold exceeded number of berths'

Eleven women and five children were among the 18 crushed in the stampede at New Delhi Railway Station

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the railways to examine the fixing of maximum passengers and sale of platform tickets. These issues were raised in a PIL over the recent stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the authorities concerned to state in its affidavit, the details of its measures on the issues.

"Let the issues raised in the petition be examined, as suggested by the solicitor general, at the highest level at the Railway Board and thereafter an affidavit be filed by the respondent giving details of the decisions which might be taken by the Railway Board," the court ordered.

The PIL sought safety measures to prevent such tragic incidents, and to enforce a section of the Railways Act that limits passengers per coach and prescribes a six-month jail term to those who flout the rule. The rule in question is Section 147, which also prescribes a Rs 1,000 fine.

"Show what steps you will take to implement existing laws that limit number of passengers in coaches and penalise persons entering without authority," the court said as quoted by NDTV. "From a perusal of the relevant sections (of the Railways Act)... every railway administration is under a statutory mandate to fix a certain number of passengers... and this number shall be exhibited conspicuously outside coach."

The court said on "rush days" the railways could accommodate more than the permitted limit, but that otherwise enforcing the maximum seating capacity "seems to have been neglected". "Why did number of tickets sold exceed number of berths? That is a problem," it said as quoted by NDTV.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the matter was not taken in an adversarial manner and the Railways was bound to follow the law.

He said there was an "unprecedented" situation and assured the court that the issues raised in the PIL would be considered at the highest level.

The court said the PIL was not confined to the recent incident of stampede as it sought implementation of the existing legal provisions with respect to maximum number of passengers in a compartment and sale of platform tickets. If the legal provisions were perhaps implemented adequately, such incidents of stampede could be avoided, it added.

The matter would come up on March 26.

A PIL was also filed in the Supreme Court on February 17, two days after the tragic incident that claimed 18 lives and left 15 injured, and sought immediate action to prevent such disasters in the future.

The PIL, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, sought a direction to the Centre and other authorities for implementation and consideration of a 2014 report of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on "Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering".