The High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam had earlier dismissed the petition. (file)
Annoyed at an unusual request from a petitioner, the Supreme Court on Monday pulled him up, saying he has turned the top court into a post office. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra were hearing a petition by a 39-year-old Kerala lawyer who wanted the court to order allotting a stop for a Vande Bharat train at his home district.
"You want us to decide where the Vande Bharat train will stop? Should we schedule a Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani stop next? This is a policy matter, go to the authorities," the CJI said, rebuking the petitioner PT Sheejish.
The petitioner argued that the Supreme Court should at least ask the government to consider this representation, but the CJI said that he would not interfere, as it would seem that the court took cognisance in this matter.
The petitioner had alleged that even though there was a proposal to allot a stop for the new 'Vande Bharat' at Tirur, it didn't fructify without any reason. Despite Malappuram being densely populated and many people depending on train services for their travel purposes, a stop has not been allotted for the district, the petitioner alleged.
Tirur was allotted a stop on behalf of the Malappuram district, but the Indian Railways called back the stop and instead another railway station -- Shornur in the Palakkad district -- was allotted, which is roughly 56 km away from Tirur, the petitioner said, alleging it was done for political reasons.
The failure to allot a stop at Tirur Railway Station is an injustice to the people of Malappuram and, therefore, ignoring their requests and demands causes great prejudice, he argued.
"The stops to be provided for a train is a matter that has to be determined by the Railways. No person has a vested right to demand that a particular train should stop at a particular station," the Supreme Court said, adding that if every individual or public-spirited person in every district starts clamouring or demanding a stop to be provided at a railway station of their choice, the purpose of setting up high speed trains would itself be lost.
"Railway stops are not to be provided on demands based on personal or vested interests, especially for high speed express trains like Vande Bharat train. If stops are provided on demand by the public, the term express train will itself become a misnomer," the court added.
The Vande Bharat train in question runs from one end of the state -- Thiruvananthapuram -- to the other end -- Kasaragod -- and back on the same day.
The High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam had earlier dismissed the petition on the view that courts cannot interfere in the matter of providing stops for railway trains, and that it is purely within the discretion and jurisdiction of the railways.