Telangana: Railway penalty goes off-track; consumer forum backs passengers
Hyderabad: A dentist couple that had the mortification of being dubbed ticketless travellers despite having valid tickets, and was forced to pay penalty under police watch by the railways, has been awarded compensation by the consumer forum of Hyderabad.
The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum-2 has ordered the railways to return the penalty and pay compensation to Dr Ayaz Ahmed, a research associate in Goa, and Dr Iffatunnisa, a dentist and resident of Attapur in the city.
The issue dates back to December 16, 2011. Dr Ahmed’s brother Tanveer Ahmed had booked AC III tier tickets under Tatkal at Thrissur, Kerala, for the couple on Sabari Express for travel to Hyderabad the next day.
He was asked for ID proof — the norm had been introduced 12 days previously. Mr Tanveer Ahmed provided his own ID proof. The booking clerk accepted it, and did not inform him that the ID papers of the passengers was required as per the regulations. The couple noticed that their age was wrongly entered in the reservation chart.
They went to the staff and obtained an endorsement on the reverse of the ticket. On the train, the TTE said the ID proof they provided did not match with the data on the chart.
At Shornoor Junction, the station master turned up with the railway police. The couple were forced to pay '3,430. They did that under protest and filed a case against the Thrissur station master U. Unni Krishnan at the forum in Hyderabad.
The railways argued that the forum had no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the complaint. It said Section 15 of the Railway Claims Trib-unal Act, 1987 barred any court or authority from exercising jurisdiction vested in the Rail-way Claims Tribunal.
To this, the forum said the destination was Hyderabad and it had jurisdiction to try the complaint. The forum said the Act covered goods transport while this case was regarding passengers who had purchased tickets.
The forum noted that the only mistake was that the ID proof of Dr Ayaz Ahmed’s brother had been provided, instead of that of the passenger. No one had claimed the berths that had been allotted to the couple on the train, the family noted.
The forum ruled that demanding penalty may be legal but it was unfair as the couple had purchased tickets and were forced to pay the penalty even after they produced their ID cards. The forum ordered the railways to repay the penalty of Rs 3,430 and pay compensation of Rs 5,000 and costs of Rs 2000 to Dr Ayaz Ahmed and Dr Iffatunnisa.
Single track Approach
- Railways asks a couple travelling to Hyderabad to pay penalty — under police watch — for “ticketless travel.” The couple had tickets but their ID proof did not match with that on record.
- The ticket was booked by the couple’s relative, who had provided his own ID proof and not that of the passsenger.
- The ID proof norm was 12 days old at that time; the booking clerk had accepted the ID proof
- Consumer forum penalises railways, asks it to return penalty
