New Delhi:
Indian Railways is a keystone of our country’s infrastructure and any effort to disrupt the integrity and stability of the ticketing system ought to be stopped on its tracks, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Prashant Kumar Mishra was hearing two separate appeals of two men accused of fraud in railway ticketing.
“The Indian Railways is a keystone of our country’s infrastructure. It carries around 673 crore passengers annually and has a tremendous impact on the economy of this country. Any effort to disrupt the integrity and stability of the ticketing system has to be stopped on its tracks,” the bench said.
The appeals were over the interpretation of Section 143 of the Railways Act, 1989, which provides for imposing of penalty for unauthorised businesses of procuring and supply of railway tickets.
The first appeal challenged a Kerala High Court order quashing the criminal proceedings under Section 143 of the Act launched against one Mathew K Cheriian.
Cheriian was accused of creating fraudulent user IDs with the IRCTC portal to procure and peddle railway tickets for profit, without being an authorised agent.
In the other appeal, one J Ramesh challenged a Madras High Court judgment refusing to quash the criminal proceedings against him under Section 143 of the Act.
Ramesh, an authorised agent, was accused of supplying e-tickets, booked through multiple user IDs, to various customers.
The top court said Mathew, not being an authorised agent of the railways should face the proceedings under Section 143 of the Railways Act, 1989.
“Any breach has to be remedied by civil action and not criminal action. To sum up, Mathew not being an authorised agent has to face the proceedings against him while Ramesh, being an authorised agent, cannot be proceeded against under Section 143 of the Act for alleged breach of any of the terms and conditions of the contract. If, at all, he would be liable to face civil action,” the bench held.
The top court, however, quashed the criminal proceedings against Ramesh, and said, “Section 143, by being completely silent on creation of multiple user IDs, penalises the actions of only the unauthorised agents and not unauthorised actions of the authorised agents. Thus, even if the facts disclosed in the first information report are taken at face value, commission of an offence cannot be attributed to Ramesh.” The bench agreed with the prosecution on Section 143, a penal provision, being enacted to tackle a social crime.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
