Jabalpur: The Jabalpur High Court, while disposing of a letter case, gave an important decision in favor of pregnant women. The court has said in its final order that Indian Railways should consider the order of preference in the process of reservation of berths. Responding to a letter petition, the High Court has said that in the railway seat reservation, first of all, pregnant women, then senior citizens and then VVIP should give priority.
On the issue of reservation of lower berths, the double bench of Justice Sanjay Yadav and Justice Atul Sridharan of the High Court said, “Pregnant women are being asked to give priority only because the middle berth or upper berth is not appropriate for them due to health reasons.” In this case, instead of patients suffering from serious diseases, they should be given preference in reservation. With this request, the Division Bench disposed of the letter petition and asked the Railways to change the order of preference.
The issue
During his official visit from Gwalior to Jabalpur, Justice Rajiv Kumar Srivastava had sent a letter to the Registrar General of the High Court regarding his experiences and pointed out many flaws. The aim was that some new and concrete steps could be taken to improve the system and improve railway reservation, in which advocate Aditya Sanghi had filed an application expressing his consent on the experience of Justice Rajiv Kumar Srivastava. During the hearing of the petition, it was answered by the Railways that in the allocation of lower berths, priority is given to VVIP first. Ministers, Supreme Court, and High Court judges are also involved in this. After VVIP, priority is given to pregnant women and then senior citizens. Railways also said that every person needs a lower birth. But the first attempt is to give priority to the senior citizen first.
