Tickets confirmed 4 hours before departure, man takes flight: Railways to pay Rs 19,700

A Kerala resident has won a payout of Rs 19,700 after the Thiruvananthapuram District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held Southern Railway guilty of deficiency in service for denying him a ticket cancellation refund. The commission observed that the SMS confirming the tickets was only received within the four-hour window before departure, during which cancellations were not allowed a refund.

Commission president P V Jayarajan and members Preetha G Nair and Viju V R stated in the October 27 order, “The intimation of confirmed tickets to the complainant within four hours of the scheduled departure of the train itself restrains the complainant to cancel the confirmed tickets before four hours of the scheduled departure of the train. The act of the 1st opposite party (Southern Railway) amounts to deficiency in service, hence 1st opposite party is liable to compensate the complainant.”

The man claimed that his daughter had received a call letter from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the post of assistant meteorological officer, and she was asked to appear for document verification and other formalities on June 22, 2018, at the head office in New Delhi.

The father alleged that for their journey to Delhi, they had travelled by flight, and for the return journey, his daughter had booked two tickets in both sleeper class and 3rd AC through IRCTC and paid Rs 6,700 in total.

The man contended that because the tickets continued to be waitlisted, on June 22, 2018, at 7.20 pm, they approached the IRCTC service counter in New Delhi and found that the tickets continued to remain unconfirmed. Consequently, since the train was due to leave at 11.35 pm, the man decided to book flight tickets instead.

The father stated that after he had booked the flight tickets, they received an SMS at around 7.39 pm that their train tickets had been confirmed, as a result of which they tried to cancel the confirmed railway tickets, but due to internet disruptions and connectivity issues, they could cancel the tickets only at 8.45 pm.

The man said he did not get any refund for the booked tickets, as he was unable to cancel the tickets four hours before the scheduled train departure time, which caused a huge monetary loss to him.

Story continues below this ad

‘No responsibility’

Advocate Renganathan, appearing for the Southern Railway, argued that the man should have canceled his ticket when he had booked the flight. The counsel stated that the waitlisted tickets got confirmed only when a cancellation was done by a confirmed passenger, and when a cancellation occurs, it could not be predicted by the railway administration or anyone.

The counsel submitted that the man had the option to cancel his ticket at any point in time and the rules regarding cancellation and the refund structure were made available to the public through the Southern Railway public timetable, IRCTC websites and railway websites. The counsel also argued that the man had booked his tickets through IRCTC and IRCTC did not work under the administrative control of the Southern Railway.

Advocate Mulamoottil S Abdul Salim, appearing for IRCTC, submitted that the platform had no responsibility or liability towards any negligence or fault in the service of the Southern Railway and that it had no role in preparing the chart, confirmation of berths, cancellation of tickets and refund of the amount etc, which were exclusively within the domain of the railways.

He said that the refund of ticket fare was effected by the railways according to the refund rules, and whenever IRCTC received a refund amount, it was credited to the user’s account. Since the man had not cancelled the tickets before four hours of the scheduled departure, no refund was given by the railways.

Story continues below this ad

‘Mental agony’

The district commission observed that the man would not have been able to cancel his tickets before the four-hour window ahead of the scheduled train departure because the tickets were only confirmed at 7.39 pm, which was already within the four-hour window.

The bench added that IRCTC was not at fault because the Southern Railway had not opposed its argument that it had no role in sending messages regarding the confirmation or cancellation of tickets, and that the refund was decided by the railways.

Accordingly, Southern Railway was directed to refund Rs 6,700 to the man and pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for the mental agony he suffered, besides Rs 3,000 as litigation costs.

Takeaway

The ruling establishes the obligation of railways to ensure proper services to its customers and emphasises that the concerns of consumers must not be ignored, causing them unnecessary inconvenience.

Story continues below this ad

For consumer-related grievances, individuals may contact the consumer helpline in their respective states and union territories (Kerala: 1800-425-1550) or call the National Consumer Helpline on 1915 for assistance.

Don’t miss out on these stories:

AIIMS Rishikesh ordered to pay Rs 60,000 after ‘wrongly declaring’ man as HIV positive

Woman fitted with Rs 2.45 lakh ‘defective dentures’, dentist ordered to pay Rs 3.15 lakh

Nearly 6 lakh cases pending in consumer commissions, over 860 posts vacant: Centre