Chennai: SETC to pay family Rs 36,000 who didn't get bus seats

Chennai: In an unfortunate event that occurred eight years ago, a family who had made advance bookings with the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) to travel from Chennai to Vedaranyam was compelled to make the entire journey standing in the bus. Following their petition, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai - South directed the SETC to pay them a compensation of Rs 36,000 for causing them mental agony and deficiency in service.

In the petition, Abdul Ajeez of Porur submitted that he proposed to travel along with his family members from Chennai to Vedaranyam in May 2010. He booked nine tickets at the State Express Transport Corporation office at the CMBT bus terminal on May 18, 2010, to travel on May 21. The staff at the reservation counter allotted them seat numbers 36 to 44. He paid a sum of Rs 1,155 for the tickets.

He said that when they boarded the bus, they were not allotted seats and had no choice but to travel standing from CMBT bus terminus to Vedaranyam, due to which they had to face serious hardship during the travel despite booking the tickets two days in advance. In the petition, he sought a compensation of Rs 2 lakh along with a refund of the amount paid for purchasing the tickets.

The bench headed by president M. Mony held that SETC had committed a deficiency in service by not providing seats to Abdul Ajeez and his family members. The bench directed the SETC to pay Rs 36,000 including the refund of the ticket value of Rs 405 and a cost of Rs 5,000.