A passenger's failure to check the requisite date of his train ticket during the booking does not absolve the Indian Railways from the liability of giving the wrong ticket and of rendering deficient service, a consumer forum here has held.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum passed the order on a plea by North Delhi resident Janardan Singh, who said the Indian Railways issued him a ticket with wrong date due to which he had to pay an extra Rs 505 for a berth on the actual date of journey.
"It is correct that complainant could have looked into the details of the tickets before leaving the reservation counter. However, on that account, the Railway cannot claim that it has caused no deficiency in service.
"It should have issued the Railway ticket to him for the date for which he applied by submitting the requisition form," said the bench presided by B. B. Chaudhary.
The forum directed the government enterprise to ‘refund Rs 505 charged by TTE’ to Singh and asked it to pay him Rs 7,000 as damages for harassment and litigation charges.
Singh, in his plea, had said he booked two tickets, for himself and his wife, through separate forms from a Tis Hazari court complex booking counter for October 19, 2009 from New Delhi to Kodarma.
He said at the time of boarding the train he found his ticket was issued for October 18, 2009 while his wife's ticket was for the correct date i.e. October 19, 2009.
Defending itself, the Railways had contended there was no deficiency of service on its part as Singh should have checked the particulars including fare, sex, date and destination on the ticket before leaving the booking counter.
The forum, however, held Singh must have obviously believed that both the tickets had been issued for the date he had applied and by issuing it for a wrong day, the Railways caused deficiency in service and Singh had to suffer financial loss besides harassment.
"The Indian Railways caused deficiency in service to the complainant and he is entitled for due compensation," it said.