Supreme Court mandates insurance on offline railway tickets from October 27

The Supreme Court has issued a mandatory directive that tickets sold across counters at every railway station nationwide must include travel insurance coverage identical to online bookings. A Bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R. Mahadevan directed the railway authorities to put the order into effect from October 27, 2026.

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The order explicitly warned that failure to implement this mechanism would place direct liability squarely on the Railway Board.

“At present, only people purchasing tickets online are provided the benefit of insurance coverage upon payment of a nominal additional amount. The court had granted sufficient time to the authorities to devise a mechanism extending such coverage to persons belonging to the lowest strata of society, who, in most cases, purchase their tickets at the railway reservation counters while undertaking journeys by train,” the court observed, pointing out that the railway had made no progress on providing insurance cover to all passengers.

The direction was based on a writ petition filed in the aftermath of the June 2023 Odisha train accident. The petition initially focused on an independent probe into the accident and the implementation of safety systems like Kavach. However, the court widened the scope of the case to include various passenger and infrastructural aspects of rail travel, including the lack of insurance for economically disadvantaged passengers who purchase tickets over the counter at stations.

The court, in its order dated October 6, recorded its “utter disappointment and displeasure at the conduct of the officers of the Ministry of Railways in such a serious matter concerning the safety of the common man”.

“The Railways have been representing before this court that all necessary steps are being taken in this regard. However, it appears that such assurances have remained largely on paper and that no substantial change has taken place on the ground,” the court noted.

In a scathing order, the bench said even the budgetary provisions for the targeted areas relating to the safety of the common man and the prevention of untoward incidents had not been fully utilised.

Initially, the court directed the Chairman and Members of the Railway Board to appear physically on November 16, the date of the next hearing, but later kept the summons in abeyance.