The Government’s attempts to replace catering services on trains in order to provide better food options to railway commuters have come to a nought. On Friday, the Supreme Court set aside an order issued by Railways denying renewal of licences of catering service providers on the South Central route and said that the State has a supreme duty to ensure these persons are not rendered jobless and deprived of a livelihood.
The bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Amitava Roy said, “If the appellants (Railways) under the guise of the Catering Policy 2010 are permitted to deny renewal of licences in favour of the licensees, it would amount to deprivation of their right to freedom of occupation guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) of Constitution as well as the right to livelihood which would be diametrically opposite to their constitutional duty towards social justice as well as uplifting unemployed youth of the country.”
Under the 2010 policy, all existing catering service providers on South Central route got a three-year extension that expired in 2013. On April 26, 2013, the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Vijayawada invited bids on packaged food offered in trains to make existing caterers place bids along with established names in the business so as to improve food quality offered on trains.
The Centre also had a legal argument that only fresh licenses provided under 2010 Policy were entitled for renewal and not those who existed prior to it. The Andhra Pradesh High Court failed to get convinced by the Government’s argument and held its decision to be violative of Article 14 (right to equality).
The Railways had approached the apex court with the hope to convince the judges that public welfare will be paramount and the decision will weigh in favour of providing good food and facilities to passengers travelling by railways.
But the bench held that the affected persons belonged to poor and downtrodden class of society as they were not just caterers but vendors selling fruit juice, dry fruits and operation minor stalls. “It is the duty of every welfare State to generate employment. Presently millions of youth of the country are unemployed…It is the duty of State, acting through its instrumentalities to ensure that no person in a vulnerable position is exploited.”
While terming the “callous” attitude of the Government as “appalling” for failing to tackle the problem of rising unemployment, the court was of the view that the affected persons were completely dependant on “self-earning” and making them participate in a public competition is “absolutely unfair, unreasonable and arbitrary”.
While directing Railways to renew the existing licenses of caterers and minor stall operators, the bench said that renewal will be provided only after the licensees disclose on affidavit that they have no benami license of any shop or kiosk besides the one in their name and will be open for periodical increase of license fee by Railways.