SR reverts confirmed tickets to waitlist, told to pay Rs 29,000 to passenger

CHENNAI: A passenger, whose railway tickets were reverted to waitlist after getting confirmed, was awarded Rs 29,000 in lieu of the ticket fare, the taxi charge that he had to incur, and deficiency in service by the Chennai North District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

Dilip Kumar M Jain of Chennai had booked reservation tickets through a travel agency for nine passengers (nine adults and three children) from Jolarpet to MGR Chennai Central on June 23, 2024, on Train no 22626. He paid Rs 4,005 for the tickets, which, at the time of booking, were waitlisted (numbers 60 to 68).

According to Jain, he received a message at 06.59 am on the day of the journey that of the nine tickets, four got confirmed and five were in waitlist. As there were three children in the group, they chose to travel by adjusting in the four tickets that were confirmed. However, after preparation of the chart, he received another message at 10.54 am that all the tickets were waitlisted.

When he approached the ticket counter, he was told that the tickets cannot be cancelled as the train had arrived. He also sent an email to the IRCTC customer care. Finally, after realising that the train journey would not happen, Jain and friends had to take a taxi, paying a hefty Rs 8,022, because they had to reach Chennai the next day.

After reaching Chennai, he approached the railway reservation counter and was directed to several railway officials. However, all his efforts went in vain. He then filed a complaint against the General Manager representing Southern Railway and the Divisional Railway Manager of Chennai, seeking a refund of the fare with interest, taxi charges of Rs 8,022 with interest, and compensation of Rs 4.50 lakh and costs.

The Southern Railway claimed that beforethe charting of the train, 87 seats in the chair car class were not available due to operational reasons. Due to that, passengers who had confirmed seats at the time of booking were re-allotted to other coaches. The complainant's tickets, which were initially upgraded from waitlist to confirmed for four passengers, was subsequently reverted to waitlist status after charting. There was no malpractice as alleged by the complainant, it said.

The commission, headed by president D Gopinath, and members V Ramamurthy and Kavitha Kannan, found deficiency in service. The national transporter was directed to pay a sum of Rs 4,005 towards the refund of the tickets charges, and compensation of Rs 20,000 towards deficiency in service, monetary loss including alternate travel cost, and other incidental expenses, mental agony, pain, and sufferings incurred. It also added Rs 5,000 towards litigation cost.