Remember Sachin Tichkule from the famous Bollywood comedy ‘Khatta Meetha’?
Remember in the movie how the court gave him a road-roller as compensation when the municipal corporation failed to do so.
Well, guess what, something similar (and much bigger than a road-roller) has been offered as compensation to a farmer in Ludhiana, Punjab by the court of law.
In an odd judgement by the court of additional district and sessions judge Jaspal Verma, Sampuran Singh, a farmer from Katana village, Punjab became the owner of the ‘Swarna Shatabdi Express’. The train runs between New Delhi and Amritsar, a major route of the Northern Railways.
The judgement came after a lengthy legal battle that lasted about 10 years between Sampuran Singh and the Northern Railways.
In 2007, Singh’s land was acquired by the northern railways for the Ludhiana-Chandigarh railway line. As per the norm, he was entitled to a monetary compensation of ₹1.47 crore. However, the railways paid him only ₹42 lakhs. The court asked the railways to pay the rest in Jan 2015, but they didn’t comply.
After an execution plea was filed by Singh, the court ordered the attachment of the train as well as the office room of the station master of the Ludhiana railway station. Later, in a five-minute episode, the court orders were handed to the train driver when it arrived at the station. Speaking of the incident, Singh said,
As the petitioner obviously can not take the train home, it was released on ‘superdari’ from a court official, making the train a property of the court now. Speaking of the bizarre incident, Divisional Railway Manager, Anuj Parkash said.
“(There is) some issue relating to compensation amount to a farmer which is being sorted out.”
While the court order is being reviewed by the law ministry, it is certainly one of the most bizarre cases of justice in India. Let’s just hope that Mr Singh gets his fair compensation on time because let’s face it, unless he is Sheldon, this train is not going to do much good to him.