Farmer sues rail company ...and gains train

AN Indian farmer’s battle for what he considered to be proper compensation for land seized to build a railway line reached an unexpected conclusion this week when a court awarded him a train.

Sampuran Singh has been fighting his compensation lawsuit since 2015, when he went to court to argue that Indian Railways had underpaid him for a piece of land in the northern state of Punjab, acquired to build new tracks.

After he won his case the railway company refused to pay — so he filed another plea in January.

On Friday, Singh’s lawyer said a court in the state had awarded him an express train in lieu of the 10 million rupees (about R1.9-million) he was owed.

“We were tired of pleading with the railways to clear the pending dues. The court asked us to identify properties for recovering our money,” said Rakesh Gandhi.

Judge Jaspal Verma also granted Singh ownership of the stationmaster’s office in Ludhiana, a Punjab city through which the train passes.

After the hearing on Wednesday, Singh and his lawyer waited at Ludhiana station, and when the train

We were tired of pleading with the railways to clear the pending dues

arrived, handed the court order to the driver.

Singh said he allowed the driver to carry on to the train’s destination as stopping it “would have caused inconvenience to thousands of passengers”.

Railway officials later secured an interim court order giving them control of the train until the case was heard again yesterday.

“If they fail to pay the money by Saturday then the court can sanction an auction,” Gandhi said of the 20-coach express train, which runs daily between New Delhi and the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab.

Several Indian courts in the past have unsuccessfully awarded trains to aggrieved farmers for unpaid dues.

Last year, an express train was confiscated on court orders after a 62-year-old farmer in southern Karnataka state won a compensation case over land taken in 2006.

The intercity express was halted at Harihar station for two hours before officials persuaded him to release it.

And in 2015, railway officials handed over 3 million rupees to two farmers at a station in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh to secure the release of an express train. —