Kerala commission orders railway to pay passenger Rs 19,700
A consumer commission ruled that late ticket confirmation prevented a man from claiming a refund after he booked flights.
A district consumer commission in Kerala has directed Southern Railway to pay Rs 19,700 to a passenger, according to a report by The Times of India. The order follows a 2018 incident where a man booked flights after his train tickets appeared unconfirmed, only for the railway to confirm them minutes later.
The complainant, Dilip Kumar P S, had booked two waitlisted tickets for himself and his daughter for a journey from Hazrat Nizamuddin to Thiruvananthapuram on June 22, 2018. After finding the tickets unconfirmed at an IRCTC service counter in New Delhi at 7.20 pm, the pair booked flights for their return journey.
The railway tickets were confirmed via SMS at 7.39 pm, less than four hours before the scheduled 11.35 pm departure. The commission found that this late notification deprived the passenger of the chance to cancel the tickets within the required deadline for a refund.
Southern Railway argued that passengers can cancel at any time and that the matter belonged before the Railway Claims Tribunal. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) stated it only provided reservation access and was not responsible for chart preparation or berth confirmation.
The commission bench, consisting of president P V Jayarajan and members Preetha G Nair and Viju V R, exonerated IRCTC. It ruled that Southern Railway's late confirmation constituted a deficiency in service.
The commission directed Southern Railway to pay Rs 6,700 as a ticket refund, Rs 10,000 for mental agony, and Rs 3,000 for litigation expenses. The payment must be made within one month of receiving the order, or it will incur 9 per cent annual interest.