An appeal has been recently filed before the Supreme Court seeking a halt for the newly launched Vande Bharat train at Tirur Railway station in Malappuram district.
The plea has challenged a May 2 decision of the Kerala High Court for the rejection of the petition.
The division bench consisting of Justices Bechu Kurian Thomas and C Jayachandran of the High Court rejected the plea stating that the halting spots of a train are determined by Indian Railways and that no one has a vested right to demand halting for a train at a particular station.
The High Court stated that, “Moreover, like the petitioner, if every individual or public-spirited person in every district, starts clamoring or demanding a stop to be provided at a Railway Station of his/her 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, we find no reason to entertain this writ petition and the same is dismissed in limine.”
The appeal before the top court stated that as per the 1st schedule of train stop initially announced by the Indian Railways for Vande Bharat, Tirur railway station was allotted a stop on behalf of the Malappuram district.
Therefore, the Indian Railways called back the stop allotted to Tirur railway station and instead another railway station, Shornur in Palakkad district that was allotted the stop which is roughly 56 kilometer away from Tirur.
Furthermore, the petition said that the action of calling back the railway stop that was proposed to be allotted to the Tirur railway station is significantly due to political reasons which is absolute injustice to the entire people of Malappuram district, as Malappuram is the most densely populated district and there are large number of citizens who are in dire need of the said train service.
The petitioner filed through advocates Sriram Parakkat and MS Vishnu Shankar said that the petitioner doesn’t have a secure interest and only highlighted a larger public interest as the issue affects lakhs of citizens living in Malappuram district.
