Justice Devan Ramachandran noted that the K- Rail is a joint venture company under the Government of Kerala and the Ministry of Railways of Government of India and has been set up for complementing Indian Railways in augmenting the railway infrastructure within the State of Kerala. The State and Central governments have a 51% and 49% share in K-Rail respectively.
Therefore, the judge remarked that the Central government must also answer the questions raised regarding K-Rail’s Silverline project.
“I will not treat Government of India as a lesser partner. I will treat you as an equal partner in K-Rail. Then your responsibility to answer all these concern is also equal…There is a fear created, at least in the minds of these petitioners. And I thought as a constitutional court, we could try to allay that,” Justice Ramachandran orally remarked.
The judge went on to reject the political motives that have been ascribed to the court in light of the pending cases disputing land survey and acquisition proceedings for the project.
“This project should have been done so smoothly. You are also part of it. Such projects are there in other parts of India. That is why the Supreme Court correctly said have a pan-India approach. We can’t fall for these politics though they try to ascribe politics to us. We can’t fall for it“, the judge orally observed.
Source: Barandbench
