Widow’s loss prompts SC push to fix overcrowded trains

The Supreme Court on Friday (July 17, 2026) flagged the persistent menace of overcrowding on trains, urging the railway to deploy youth on the ground to stop people from traveling on footboards.

The court refused to lay the blame for congested trains entirely on the railway. It said passengers had an equal responsibility. Despite repeated deaths and tragedies due to overcrowding, the court said, train-travelling “daredevils” refuse to reform either out of habit or due to the “economic rat race”.

“People still insist on being daredevils in catching trains and making their way from one place to another. True that most of these choices are informed by one or the other practical consideration, but the risk stares one right in the face. Sometimes, practical considerations must give way to the preservation of life,” a Bench headed by Justice Sanjay Karol observed in a judgment.

The court further asked the railway to reconsider the “second-class” nomenclature attached to passengers as an anachronism alien to the Constitution’s egalitarian spirit.

The judgment stems from an appeal filed by Lata, whose husband died in November 2015 after falling from a moving train. Represented by advocate Shweta Priyadarshini, Lata had previously been denied compensation by both the Railway Claims Tribunal and the Madhya Pradesh High Court because no train ticket was recovered from her husband’s body. The Tribunal had dismissed the tragedy as an “untoward accident”.

The Supreme Court held that the railway was subject to a “no-fault liability” under the Railway Act of 1989. The liability existed “irrespective of a wrongful act, neglect or default on part of the railway administration” with limited exceptions in cases of suicides, intoxication and inanity.

The court said the railway, although a facet of colonial inheritance, serves as the “backbone of the nation”. It is the largest civil employer in the country, and should not resort to technical approaches over compensation.

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

“But for each individual family that suffers this unspeakable tragedy, the loss and suffering is life-altering and in some cases even unsurmountable. This court must treat it as such,” Justice Karol observed.

The court pointed out that the Railway manuals required passengers’ tickets to be checked. If that had been done, the widow would not have had to travel to the Supreme Court to prove her case, Justice Karol pointed out.

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