‘States, Railways final judge on ticket fare’

Court finds no reason to step in

06/05/2020, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in a plea alleging that stranded migrant workers journeying home amid COVID-19 lockdown are charged 15% of their rail ticket fare.

A three-judge Bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan on Tuesday said it was not for the court but the State governments and the Railways to take steps.

The Centre was responding to arguments made by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for a former IIM(A) faculty member Jagdeep S. Chhokar, and lawyer Gaurav Jain that even the 15% fare was too high a burden for the workers. Mr. Bhushan said the government should transport them free of cost.

Nevertheless, the court heartily agreed with Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta that necessary steps were indeed taken to care for the thousands of migrants and their families, mostly poor labourers wanting to return to their native villages to escape starvation and homelessness in the big cities.

The court, under the context, found no reason at all to step in. The Bench said the petition had wanted a direction to the government to allow migrans to return to their native villages.