Indian Railways has been directed by a consumer forum here to pay Rs 30,000 to a family of four for failing to stop unauthorised persons from entering a reserved coach and causing inconvenience to the passengers.
The Central District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum relied on documents filed by Railways and the complainants to conclude that unauthorised persons had entered the coach and officials on board failed to stop them which amounts to deficiency in service.
"On the basis of the affidavit as filed on behalf of Railways and its reply of October 23, 2010, we find that unauthorised persons had entered into the reserved railway compartment of the train in which the complainants (the family) were travelling. Those unauthorised persons boarded in the coach at Ludhiana and were deboarded at Ambala station.
"It is the duty of Railways to allow only authorised persons to travel in the reserved coach...Since the railway officials failed to prevent the entry of unauthorised persons in a reserved coach, therefore, presence of such persons amounts to deficiency in service on the part of Railways and mental agony to the complainants, who were travelling with valid tickets," a bench presided by B B Chaudhary said.
The order came on a plea of Delhi resident Dev Kant who had alleged that on October 20, 2009, he and his family members were travelling from Amritsar to Delhi when a large number of people without tickets entered their coach and the TTE had done nothing to stop or remove them.
The unauthorised persons were not removed from the coach even at the next station and were deboarded only at Ambala, till when Kant and his family could not go to sleep or use the toilet as the passageways had been blocked by the persons without tickets, who were sitting on floors and wherever they could find seats, Kant had alleged.
Railways, while admitting that such an incident had occurred, contended that the TTE had taken prompt steps to deboard the unauthorised persons from the coach.
