New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday junked a plea seeking directions to the Centre that the Vande Bharat Express train stops at the Tirur railway station in Malappuram district of Kerala. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud expressed the court's disinclination in entertaining the plea and questioned how courts can be involved in deciding the train stops.
The bench, also comprising justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Mishra, told petitioner’s counsel "You want us to decide which train stops it should have….”. "You want Vande Bharat to stop at Tirur. We will not tell them (the government). This falls under the policy domain of the executive. Dismissed," the bench said.
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Dismissing the petition filed by P. T. Sheejish, through advocate Sriram P., the bench asked sarcastically if the court will also take a call on stations from Delhi to Mumbai Rajdhani. The petitioner had moved the apex court against the decision of the Kerala High Court, delivered in May this year, which declined to entertain such a prayer.
The Kerala High Court had dismissed the plea stating that halting points of a train are determined by the Indian Railways and no one has a vested right to demand halt for a train at a particular station. The plea filed in the apex court contended that as per the first schedule of train stop initially announced by the Indian Railways for Vande Bharat, a stop at Tirur railway station was allotted for commuters in Malappuram district but it was removed later.
The plea said another railway station, Shornur in Palakkad district was allotted the stop, and pointed out that this stop was 56 kilometres away from Tirur and stressed that petitioner is “only highlighting a larger public interest”.
