New Delhi: The Supreme Court today
disfavoured the idea of monitoring the steps taken by the
railways for converting unmanned railway crossing gates into
manned level crossings saying guidelines in this regard have
already been laid down by railways.
The petition for manning all railway crossings was filed
in 2001 by an NGO which had pointed out large number of
accidents taking place at unmanned crossings.
During the course of nine years, railways came out with
the guidelines for converting the unmanned crossings into
manned level crossings after the apex court started monitoring
the development.
When the matter came up for hearing today, a bench
comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S
Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar said "role of the court
comes to an end after guidelines are laid down by Railways".
However, it said that "in the given case if any of the
guidelines is violated, it will be open for the petitioner to
move the court for implementation of guidelines," the Bench
said while disposing of the PIL.
It also noted that overbridges and underbridges have
also been constructed at various unmanned railways crossings.
The PIL was filed by an NGO Consumer Education and
Research Centre seeking a direction of the apex court to
railways for conversion of all unmanned railway crossings into
manned level crossing.
-PTI
