Keywords: NCDRC, Divisional Railway Manager, Original tickets, deficient service, unfair trade practice, mental agony.
The NCDRC held the conduct of Divisional Railway Manager and Divisional Office Northern Railway (Railways) as deficiency of service and unfair trade practice.
The complainant booked tickets on Rajdhani Express to Delhi. After completion of the journey the complainants were asked to show the original tickets by the chief ticket examiner. They presented a copy of booked tickets which had all the details. Later it was insisted that the tickets were not original and imposed penalty of Rs.5150. The complainant lodged complaint in District Commission which ordered for refund saying that even though penalty was justified, the charge of amount twice the tickets was ‘deficient service’ and ‘ unfair trade practice’. State commission uphold the decision on District Commission.
The counsel for the railways argued that the chief ticket examiner followed the rules and applied penalty when the original document was not produced. The complainant’s advocate argued that the complainant presented the ticket that was made available to him by the railways which had all the required details.
Observations by NCDR.
The commission said that the tickets would have been checked at the time of boarding and at the time of journey. It further continued on the ‘ original tickets’ and said that the tickets were computer generated which had all the required details. It instructed the Railways to refund the amount of Rs. 5150 with the interest rate of 9% per annum from the journey date. Along with the compensation for Mental agony and physical harassment of Rs. 5000 and Rs. 25000 as litigation cost.
Name: Mamaswini Datar , University: Karnataka State Law University, Semester: 8th sem
