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The Railways say that if they fail to provide accommodation in the class in which the ticket is booked, they will reimburse the difference in fare, if any. Is that adequate compensation for a person who has reserved, well in advance, berths in an air-conditioned coach, but is forced to travel in the hot summer month, in an ordinary second class (without AC) as happened with me and my family? Can I go to the consumer court for compensation? You certainly can. In fact, in a number of such cases, the consumer courts have awarded compensation to the passengers for the hardship caused on account such negligent service on the part of the Railways. In Union of India vs Shri Mahendra Kumar Agrawal, (RP no 2791 of 2008), for example, the Railways was directed by the consumer court to pay the passenger a compensation of Rs 10,000 for its failure to provide him accommodation in the class in which he had booked his ticket. Even though Agrawal had purchased a first class ticket to travel by Ganganagar Express, the Railways denied him travel in that class. First, he was asked to travel in a second class coach and later, a sleeper coach. The consumer court held the Railways guilty of providing deficient service and directed the public sector undertaking to compensate the consumer for the harassment and inconvenience caused to him.
The consumer courts have held in a number of cases that failure to provide berths and seats to consumers who have confirmed, reserved tickets constitutes negligence and consumers who are recipients of such deficient service are entitled to compensation. . In North West Railways vs Shri Krishna Goyal ( RP No 2792 of 2008), for example, the complainant had reserved six berths for himself and his family to travel from Hanumangarh to Delhi on June 6, 2004. However, on the day of travel when he reached the railway station he found the coach in which his berths were reserved, missing. He was neither given a refund nor alternate berths, forcing him to hire a taxi for Rs 4,000 and travel the distance. The consumer court here held the Railways guilty of deficient service and awarded compensation to the complainant. Similarly, in Union Government of India vs Subhash Chand Jasuja (RP no 78 of 2001), four passengers were awarded a compensation of Rs 10,000 each for the inconvenience caused to them on account of the failure on the part of the Railways to provide them berths for part of their journey, despite booking the tickets 45 days in advance. In this case, the passengers had booked their tickets to travel from Ferozepore to Vasco via Delhi by first class, but because of a series of goof-ups by the Railways, they could not travel from Delhi to Goa by Goa Express and had to take another train to Pune and then travel by taxi from Pune to Goa. Perhaps the earliest cases on the issue of denied travel was filed by a consumer organisation - the Consumer Protection Council, on behalf of a senior citizen, who was not only denied a berth despite a valid ticket, but even humiliated and forced to detrain by a TTE. (Southern Railway vs Consumer Protection council, Trichy, FA No 109 of 1993) The Railways was asked to refund the cost of the ticket and pay in addition, compensation of Rs 14,000.
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Is there any consumer
court order awarding compensation to consumers who were denied
seats/berths despite reservation? If so, can you please quote the
order because I have had that experience recently and would like to
file a complaint against the Railways before the consumer court.