Widow’s loss prompts SC to fix overcrowded trains

The court refused to place the blame for the jammed trains solely on the railways. | Photo credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

The Supreme Court on Friday (July 17, 2026) flagged the persistent menace of overcrowding in trains and asked the railways to deploy youth in the field to prevent people from traveling on footboards.

The court refused to place the blame for the jammed trains solely on the railways. According to him, passengers have the same responsibility. Despite repeated deaths and tragedies due to overcrowding, the court said “brave” train travelers refuse to reform either out of habit or because of the “economic rat race”.

“People still insist that they are brave in catching trains and traveling from one place to another. It is true that most of these choices are based on one practical consideration or the other, but the risk stares one in the face. Sometimes practical considerations have to give way to saving life,” Justice Sanjay Karol observed in the judgement.

The court further asked the railways to reconsider the “second class” nomenclature associated with passengers as an anachronism foreign to the egalitarian spirit of the Constitution.

The ruling follows an appeal by Lata, whose husband died in November 2015 after falling from a moving train. Represented by advocate Shweta Priyadarshini, Lata was earlier denied compensation by both the Railway Claims Tribunal and the Madhya Pradesh High Court as no train ticket was recovered from her husband’s body. The tribunal dismissed the tragedy as an “unfortunate accident”.

The Supreme Court held that railways are subject to “no-fault liability” under the Railways Act 1989. Liability exists “regardless of wrongful act, negligence or omission on the part of the railway administration”, with limited exceptions in cases of suicide, drunkenness and insanity.

The court said that the railways, although part of the colonial legacy, served as the “backbone of the nation”. It is the largest civilian employer in the country and should not resort to technical approaches to compensation.

Judge Karol, who authored the judgment, said that for the railway, which has a network of 13,940 passenger trains running on 69,439 km of tracks and carrying 7,293 million passengers, the Lata tragedy would be statistically insignificant.

“But for each individual family who suffers this unspeakable tragedy, the loss and suffering is vital and in some cases insurmountable. This court must address that,” Judge Karol noted.

The court pointed out that the railways manuals required checking of passengers’ tickets. If that happened, the widow would not have to travel to the Supreme Court to prove her case, Judge Karol pointed out.

The Supreme Court ordered the railways to pay ₹8 lakh to Lata as compensation for her husband’s death.

Published – 17 Jul 2026 21:54 IST