New Delhi: Wait-listed passengers holding e-tickets may also get an option to board the train and occupy berths if those having confirmed seats do not show up.
The Railways will further have to come up with a plan to ensure that touts and agents do not block seats in bogus names, which can later be given to passengers with wait-listed tickets after charging extra money.
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by the Railways against a judgment, which asked the ministry to consider doing away with the discrimination between those holding tickets in physical form and those having e-tickets.
While passengers holding e-tickets are prohibited from boarding the train, the wait-listed passengers holding tickets in the physical form can board the train and take a chance of occupying berths owing to a 'no-show' of the passengers in whose name the confirmed bookings exist.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur has dismissed the appeal moved by the Railways against the Delhi High Court order in July 2014.
The order of dismissal was passed because the Railways had no lawyer appearing before the bench to argue the case. “The matter has been called out twice. No one is present on behalf of the petitioner. The special leave petition is dismissed for non-prosecution,” stated the recent court order.
The rejection of appeal would make the Delhi High Court decision binding on the Railways, making it obligatory for the department to devise ways to cut the difference between e-tickets and tickets in physical form.
In its July 2014 judgment, the HC had directed the Railways to ensure those with e-tickets are not at a disadvantage.
Issuing directives on a petition filed by advocate Vibhas Kumar Jha, the HC had given the Railways six months to complete the required exercise to do away with the differentiation, apart from making sure that tours and agents do not block seats and those holding tickets in physical form buy it from them by paying extra.
"One suggestion which comes to our mind is, to give an option to passengers purchasing e-ticket, to not have their tickets cancelled automatically at the time of preparation of the final chart before departure of the train and to if so desire take a chance by going to the railway station and availing of the seats / berths of the passengers holding reservation and who fail to show up. In doing so, the waitlist can be followed and the practice aforesaid curtailed," the HC had then held.
While issuing its order, the HC had noted that there was no provision in the law which gave an upper hand to those holding wait-listed tickets in physical form and said that if such passengers are given an option to take a chance even after the final chart is ready, those with e-tickets should not be differentiated.
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