Delhi High Court: In a petition seeking to declare Clause 3.9 of the “New Innovative Non-Fare Revenue Ideas Scheme”, also known as the New Innovative Ideas scheme 2018 as unconstitutional, Mini Pushkarna, J.*, issued notice and directed the reply to be filed within four weeks.
The Clause 3.9 of the New Innovative Ideas scheme 2018, initiated by the Indian Railways in 2018 to encourage innovative ideas for enhancing non-fare revenue and improving passenger convenience, reads as follows:
“The tenure for such NFR initiatives, shall be one year or part thereof, but can be extended by further one year, with the approval of DRM. In such cases, the license fee applicable for the extended period may be determined depending on the realisation of the potential of the project.”
In the present case, the petitioner provided services for packing of two-wheelers, parcels, and passenger luggage with optional door pickup and delivery at Visakhapatnam Railway Station. The petitioner had filed the present petition seeking to declare the impugned letter issues by Respondent 2 as illegal, arbitrary, unconstitutional, null and void. The petitioner further sought to extend the tenure of license period by seven months to compensate the business loss suffered by the petitioner, due to COVID-19 pandemic based on various orders wherein railway catering and multi-purpose stall licensees were granted benefits, including extended license periods or dies-non status, following the pandemic.
However, the respondents submitted that the present writ petition did not fall within the same contours, as the other orders passed by this Court.
Thus, the Court issued notice and directed that the reply be filed within four weeks.
The matter is next listed on 25-7-2025.
[A. Jagdeesh v. Union of India, W.P.(C) 6769 of 2025, decided on 20-5-2025]
*Order by Justice Mini Pushkarna
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioner: Jitender Mehta, Lalit Kumar, Abhinav Kumar and Shivam Pathak, Advocates.
For the Respondents: Anushkaa Arora, SPC and Archana Surve, GP with Taran Preet Singh and Megha Bhatti, Advocates