The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation petition which sought a direction to the Ministry of Railways as well as the Railway Board to provide 75% concession in rail fare to all advocates across the country as it was being provided to the physically challenged, patients suffering from certain diseases and others.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and N. Seshasayee refused to entertain the PIL plea preferred by lawyer A. Syed Kaleesha, 39, of Jawahar Nagar near Perambur, right at the admission stage itself. Though P.T. Ramkumar, the standing counsel for Southern Railways, was present in the court, the judges did not even wait to hear what he had to say.
In his affidavit, the petitioner stated that he had already filed another PIL petition in the High Court seeking a separate login for the advocates on the State registration department’s website. That case got disposed of in February this year after the government agreed to provide a separate login for advocates on the website.
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In the present case, he claimed that doctors and even actors were provided with concession in rail fare but such a benefit was denied to advocates who travel across the length and breadth of the country to argue cases for the poorest of the poor before various judicial fora. He insisted that they should be granted 75% of concession in the fare.