‘Cannot recklessly direct Rlys to resume services’

When the plea seeking for a direction to the Railways to resume services came up for hearing, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, “The petitioner may not have noticed that the last week or so the number of positive cases has gone up in this country. In Tamil Nadu it’s not as alarming as the neighbouring states but the number of cases is above the figures that were in December or February last.”

Once services resume, distancing protocol may be not possible and crowding in railway stations cannot be stopped, the bench said, adding: “Railways have to obtain expert advice to what extent it can be reopened for travel on accounting for whether the vaccination has reached completion and the number of positive cases show such downward trend.”

However, noting that the courts do not have expertise on such matters, the bench said it would refrain from adding to the confusion and “recklessly” direct train services to resume.

During the hearing, the bench also observed that owing to the increase in the number of COVID cases, physical hearing has been rolled back at the High Court and would resume only in respect of urgent matters from Thursday.