Chennai: Fine on legit passengers costs railways Rs 20,000

CHENNAI: The Chennai (North) District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has held the Southern Railway liable for deficiency in service after a family was fined Rs 1,800 on board the Silambu express despite holding valid reserved tickets. The commission has ordered the Railways to pay Rs 20,000 as compensation and costs.

According to the complaint, three passengers from Kilpauk were to travel on December 20, 2024, by the Silambu Superfast Express. Although they had booked tickets from Egmore, the train's departure was shifted to Tambaram from November 2024. The change was communicated to passengers through an SMS.

After boarding at Tambaram, the family filed a Ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) through the IRCTC app to claim the small refund for the Egmore-Tambaram portion. When the TTR checked their tickets, his handheld device showed the tickets as "cancelled", prompting him to treat them as "ticketless passengers". The family was asked to pay Rs 600 each, along with a penalty, totalling Rs 1,800.

The commission records that the TTE allegedly threatened to call the Railway Police if they refused.

The Railways argued that once a TDR is filed, the change may take time to reflect on the TTE's device, and until then the system marks the ticket as cancelled. The commission rejected this defence, observing that passengers cannot be penalised due to technical delays in the Railways' own devices. It noted that the complainants had valid reserved berths and had only sought a refund for the untravelled segment.

While dismissing the family's claim about inconvenience caused by the change of departure station, the commission held that collecting the fine despite valid tickets caused "unnecessary hardship, humiliation and mental agony."

The Southern Railway has been directed to pay Rs 15,000 as compensation (including refund of the fine) and Rs 5,000 towards litigation costs, within two months.