Chennai: The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai (North), has directed Southern Railway to pay a compensation of Rs 34,000 to a techie couple for erroneously imposing a fine on them nearly three years ago. A TTE at Park railway station collected Rs 4,444 from the couple for ticketless travel.
In the complaint, Thendral Kumar and Saranya Thendral Kumar of Kumaran Nagar in Tiruvallur district submitted they booked e-tickets in I-class AC for their journey in Rockfort Express from Tiruchi to Egmore on September 6, 2013.
To board a suburban train at Central to reach Sevvapet Road station, they took an EMU from Egmore to Park station. They assumed they had a valid ticket from Tiruchi to Sevvapet. At Park, a TTE stopped them. While explaining the reason for not taking ticket, they informed him they were ready to pay the fine.
After making them wait for an hour, the TTE imposed a fine of Rs.4,444 towards excess fare as if they had travelled without tickets from Tiruchy. However, later, they came to know that the fine amount should have been only Rs 260. The complainants’ said the TTE’s act in collecting excess fine was illegal and this caused them mental agony.
Southern Railway replied the action taken by Senior Ticket Examiner would not amount to deficiency in service, since he acted as per rules. Since the complainants failed to produce the original ID, they were imposed a fine of ' 4,444.
A Bench comprising the forum President, K.Jayabalan and member T.Kalaiyarasi said Southern Railway had not defended the case with clean hands. The petitioners themselves admitted they did not have tickets from Egmore to Park Station. If so, the TTE ought to have fined them for ticketless travel from only Egmore to Park. Hence, the railways committed deficiency of service.
