Jharkhand High Court

Ranchi, March 22: Jharkhand High Court today dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by former BJP MLA Sarayu Roy to resume night passenger train services on Tatanagar-Kharagpur, Tatanagar-Rourkela and Kharagpur-Adra rail routes.

A division bench of Chief Justice Bhagwati Prasad and Justice D.N. Patel, on hearing the petition, observed the matter concerned the Union railway ministry and thus was beyond the purview of the high court. The bench added it was not a PIL and rejected it.

Roy had challenged the decision of the Railway Board to clamp and then extend the night train ban following the Jnaneshwari Express derailment on May 28, 2010, which had killed around 150 people and injured 46. Subsequently, the statutory inquiry by Commissioner of Railway Safety, South Eastern circle, revealed the mishap was a sabotage.

The night ban, which stopped the plying of passenger trains on the Jamshedpur and Adra division routes between 10pm and 5am was clamped with a view to avert accidents caused by extremists. The passage of goods trains, however, has not been discontinued.

Roy’s petition had said that due to the ongoing ban, commuters of long distance trains as well as passengers of Jamshedpur faced trouble.Important trains which run on routes crossing the steel city and Kharagpur are halted where ever they are at 10pm and resume their journey next morning, the former MLA added.

The petition also said that due to the ban, Jamshedpur’s link with metros such as Calcutta, Mumbai, Delhi and other key hubs was hampered.

The Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jamshedpur had also protested against the ban, Roy said.