Calcutta High Court: In a writ petition filed by a practicing advocate to highlight the issue of unauthorized male passengers boarding and travelling in the compartments reserved exclusively for female passengers, a Division Bench of T.S. Sivagnanam, CJ., and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J. directed to make announcements in the public address system in all railway stations that if male passengers travel in compartments reserved exclusively for female passengers, they would be prosecuted.
The petitioner pointed out various instances where male passengers had boarded the compartments reserved exclusively for female passengers and stated that many times untoward incidents had taken place.
The petitioner also submitted a representation to the authorities and moved the Court through the present petition for appropriate direction.
The Senior Divisional Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force (‘RPF’) had given a written instruction to the standing counsel appearing for the Railways which stated that regular awareness drives were being conducted against travelling of male passengers in coaches earmarked for female passengers.
The Court stated that considering the stand taken by the Railway Protection Force which established that male passengers unauthorizedly travelled in compartments reserved exclusively for female passengers, as well as the number of people who had been arrested, this appeared to be a menace.
Thus, the Court observed that the frequency of conducting the awareness drives by the RPF should be increased so that this menace could be avoided.
The Court, while disposing of the petition, also mentioned that announcements should be made in the public address system in all railway stations that if male passengers travel in compartments reserved exclusively for female passengers, they would be prosecuted.
[Piyeta Bhattacharjee v. Union of India, 2024 SCC OnLine Cal 6611, Decided on 04-07-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For Petitioner — Advocate Ranojoy Chatterjee, Advocate Tamal Singha Roy
For Respondent — Advocate Animesh Mukherjee
if there is so much hue and cry about gender equality then why there should be any kind of reservation facility for any particular group who are able bodied and comfortable to travel in any mode of transport, its a mockery of so called gender equality and gender neutral practices.
Reserve Compartments for males if they care about equality and the constitution
If this is the case then there should be reserved coaches for male folks also what wrong they have done, if the law is equal for everyone then why this kind of discrepancy exist in the legal system as well as in the society, why one group is always given undue advantage. Adress these anomalies first.