In a significant ruling affecting livelihood-based railway services, the Bombay High Court has upheld the Central Railway’s 2018 Shoe-Shine Policy, endorsing open tendering while balancing concerns of long-serving workers. The court dismissed a plea filed by a cooperative society of shoe-shine workers seeking exclusive rights over contracts at Mumbai railway stations.

The petitioner society, operating since the 1980s at stations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, argued that its members largely from economically weaker backgrounds depended entirely on this work. They contended that the new policy, which mandates competitive bidding, threatens their livelihood and removes earlier welfare-based protections.

In a significant ruling affecting livelihood-based railway services, the Bombay High Court has upheld the Central Railway’s 2018 Shoe-Shine Policy, endorsing open tendering while balancing concerns of long-serving workers. The court dismissed a plea filed by a cooperative society of shoe-shine workers seeking exclusive rights over contracts at Mumbai railway stations.

The petitioner society, operating since the 1980s at stations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, argued that its members largely from economically weaker backgrounds depended entirely on this work. They contended that the new policy, which mandates competitive bidding, threatens their livelihood and removes earlier welfare-based protections.

At the Srinagar wing of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, a bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar on Thursday dismissed an appeal filed by National Insurance Company Limited. The insurer was seeking to overturn a compensation award granted to a family whose home was damaged during the devastating 2014 floods.

The case originates from a policy taken by late Shad Mohd Bashir, whose residential house at Sarai Payeen, Amira Kadal, Srinagar, had been insured since 2009. Though the policy was renewed annually, the company later claimed that it excluded flood and similar storm-related risks - referred to in technical jargon as “STFI” (Storm, Tempest, Flood, Inundation).