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.

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