Supreme Court rejects plea to introduce a discount on railway tickets for senior citizens

• April 29, 2023

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the plea to re-introduce a special discount on railway tickets for senior citizens. A bench of Justices SK Kaul and Ashanuddin Amanulla dismissed the plea brought by MK Balakrishnan.

Incidentally, the special discount on tickets for senior citizens has been stopped during Covid. An application was made to the Supreme Court for its reinstatement.

The Supreme Court rejected the petition and said that it is not right to issue the order of the High Court to the lower court based on the petition brought under Article 32 of the Constitution. It is up to the government to see. Only the government can take this decision depending on the needs of the senior citizens and the capacity of the fund. The petitioner told the Supreme Court that the government of the country is responsible for giving special concessions to senior citizens, this claim was also rejected by the bench.

It may be noted that in 2020, the central government stopped the concession of senior citizens to prevent free travel in trains to prevent Covid-19. Recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee reversed the decision taken before the pandemic and recommended the introduction of special concessions to senior citizens. Before Corona, Indian Railways tickets offered a 40 percent discount for men aged 60 and above and 50 percent for women aged 58 years.

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