- (1.) PRESENT petition has been preferred by the petitioner claiming to be a public spirited person who is rattled by recent events of blocking the Railway tracks by Jat Community resulting in inconvenience to the General Public and disruption of rail traffic in the State of U.P. The reliefs sought in this petition is for a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to take reasonable action as per law for ensuring that the Railway Track blocked by the Jat Movement may be opened for the smooth movement of the Railways in U.P.
(2.) WHEN the court resumed working, a mention was made by Sri Ranjit Saxena Advocate, to take up the petition regard being to the urgency of the cause also mentioning that the courts are closing for Holi vacation. At that time, the Court asked the petitioner to make a request before Senior Judge for taking up the matter today itself. The matter has again come up before us after Lunch and it appears that the Senior Judge acceded to the prayer of the learned counsel on ground of urgency. It is argued by the learned counsel that the Jat Community has resorted to blocking the rail traffic seeking reservation in the Government Jobs and as a result, the traffic flow between Lucknow and Delhi via Bareilly, Moradabad is lying blocked and the movement of trains is disrupted between the areas and as a result, number of trains have been canceled or diverted. The learned counsel has also adverted attention to the resultant loss to the Railways approximating to Rs 100 crores. According to estimate, 66 trains were cancelled on 16.3.2011 and as many as 19 trains were diverted on the said date. It is argued that in the 7th Schedule of Union list Railway falls in the union list and under item no 30 carriage of passengers by Railways including goods is the responsibility of the Union of India and in the State list 2 Schedule 7, the public order is item no 1 and the police the item no 2. It is argued that no action has been taken by the State Government as well as by the Union of India in attenuation of the resultant hardship to the general public and therefore, it is prayed that the petitioner is compelled to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court in the larger interest of the General public. It is submitted that the Jat community commenced their movement on and around 5th of March 2011 and more than 15 days have since elapsed no end to the hardship of the general public is in sight. It is indeed shocking to the conscience of the Court.
(3.) OUR country is a democratic country where duties and rights of the citizens have been defined and guaranteed in the Constitution. Every citizen is expected to act as a disciplined citizen within the parameters of the procedures prescribed and also on the basis of rule of law. OUR society is based on rule of law and unruly action or behaviour to force the Government for enforcing the demand causing inconvenience to the public in general is not a constitutionally approved scheme of things. The citizen of this Country is free to protest and air and ventilate their grievances but not at the cost of convenience of the General Public. The Additional Government Advocate Sri Zafar Nayyar appeared for the State and argued that the Railway has its own force and it being a matter pertaining to Railway track, it does not lie within the scheme of things of the State Government to do anything beyond such precautionary measures. He stated that the State Government has taken certain precautionary measures and passed on the responsibility of breaking stalemate at the end of the Union of India.;