The Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Railways and IRCTC on a public interest litigation alleging recurring technical and operational failures while booking train tickets, particularly when demand is high during the festive season.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia listed the matter for hearing on October 7 and directed the central government counsel to obtain instructions. The court observed that the festive season could pass while passengers continued to face difficulties. The counsel was asked to complete instructions within a week.
The petition, filed by Uttam Kumar, alleges that the railway reservation platform slows down or becomes difficult to access as soon as the advance booking window opens. It further claims that passengers sometimes face a deduction of money without successfully securing a seat.
The petitioner has sought an independent technical audit of the railway reservation ecosystem and the adoption of corrective safeguards to improve fairness, transparency, reliability and non-discriminatory access to available railway accommodation. The plea does not seek to establish that every passenger is entitled to a confirmed ticket. Instead, it questions whether the official reservation system gives passengers a genuine opportunity to compete for seats that are available at a particular time.
According to the petition, publicly available videos, screenshots and passenger complaints annexed to the case point to several types of reported disruption. These include difficulties accessing the booking system, login and authentication problems, termination of booking sessions, payment failures, uncertainty over transactions, the disappearance or rapid exhaustion of displayed availability and the inability to complete reservations that passengers had attempted.
The allegations centre on the functioning of the digital reservation system during periods when a large number of users attempt to book tickets simultaneously. The petition claims that such lags occur more frequently during the festive season, when advance demand for railway travel rises.
The Railways and IRCTC have not yet presented their response in the proceedings, and the court has only sought their stand at this stage. The allegations in the petition therefore remain claims before the court and have not been judicially established.
The case places the reliability of online railway booking infrastructure before the court at a time when passengers depend on the platform for time-sensitive travel reservations. The next hearing is scheduled for October 7, when the central government counsel is expected to return with instructions from the concerned authorities.