Allahabad High Court: In pursuance to the guidelines by competent authority for train escorting which provided that escort parties must have FIR forms available for the purpose of lodging FIR in order to assist passengers en-route, the division bench of S.K. Saxena and Rakesh Srivastava JJ had asked the competent authorities in its previous order dated 18.12.2014 to examine if the FIR forms could be made available with escort party of the Government Railway Police (GRP) so that passengers need not break their journey for the same. In furtherance to the aforesaid order, the authorities informed the Court that Helpline number of GRP has been publicized and passengers can register complaint on the helpline number, whereupon information will be registered and forwarded to the concerned police station or outpost which will contact the passengers in the train itself, facilitating the FIR in the running train. The Court has also instructed the Railway Board to allotte berth number 71 in S-1 coach in every train for escort party.
In the instant case, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology has allotted short code “182” to Ministry of Railways as Indian Railways Security helpline; the Court has requested to explore more simple and catchy code like 100 or 101 etc. The Court also discussed on the issue of GRP escort team carrying the heavy three naught three rifle due to which constables lose life or limb while handling these weapons during boarding or de-boarding trains, on this point concerned authorities had set up a committee which will give the report in a month.
The Court appreciated the State Government for sanctioning the funds for CCTV cameras in the ladies compartment of Electric Multiple Unit trains and for also raising the strength of GRP. In the Matter Of Bonafide Passengers (Suo Motto) (PIL) Crl v. Union of India, SCC OnLine All 91, decided on 16.01.2015