Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): It is very common to hear that train got late, but you will be surprised to know that a passenger put the Railways in the dock after a train got late by 3 hour. The passenger faught a long legal battle against the issue, prompting the Consumer Forum to imposed a fine of ₹ 7k on the Railways and ordering to pay the fine within 45 days.
According to information, Arun Kumar Jain had to travel to Delhi on March 11, 2022. Arun's brother, Rajesh Jain booked ticket on his behalf on March 5, 2022. The bookings were made for special train from Jabalpur to Hazrat Nizamuddin, New Delhi in 3rd AC coach whose fare was ₹1,293.
On March 11, the train had to reach Jabalpur at 3:30 pm and it was scheduled to reach Hazrat Nizamuddin station at 4:10 am on March 12, but the train got delayed by about 4 hours and he could not get his next connecting train, which was for Dehradun at around 6:45 am.
Following that, he filed a petition in Consumer Forum. Notably, Arun is an advocate by profession and himself presented his case before the Consumer Forum. Arun in his petition stated that he had kept sufficient time of three hours between the two trains.
After a 2-year long battle, the Consumer Forum has found deficiency in service of the Railways and imposed penalty.
Arun told Free Press that many arguments were given by the Railways but no concrete documents could be presented before the court.
The forum ordered the Railways to pay the ticket amount of ₹803.60, ₹5,000 for mental agony and ₹2,000 as litigation expenses to passenger Arun within 45 days otherwise the Railways will also have to pay interest at the rate of 9% per annum.
