Railway Officials Liable To Inform Commuters About Reasons For Delay Of Train

An order of the Consumer Disputes Redressal Committee, Thrissur which was passed on 15 January 2021, but released in April 2021, held that three railway commuters were liable for compensation due to the loss suffered by them due to a six hour delay in their journey without prior information of the same by the Railway authorities or the provision of reaching their destination Payyanur to Wadakkanchery by any alternative way.

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The three member bench of the Committee comprising the President C.T. Sabu, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan Nair and Sreeja S. held the opposite parties viz. Wadakkanchery Railway Station Superintendent and Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Palakkad liable for such default on their part.

The bench held that “it is the pious duty of the opposite parties to explain the exact reasons for the late running.”

The Forum held the opposite parties to be liable to pay compensation to the complainants, and observed thus, “In the absence of any contra evidence on the part of opposite parties to establish that the late running was due to a genuine reason beyond the control of the Southern Railway officials or their subordinates, this Commission has no other alternative but to fix the blame on the opposite parties alone only.”

The Consumer Forum held the opposite parties to be liable to compensation to the amount of Rs. 5,000, but did not order anything with respect to the costs. The Forum further disallowed the refund of the tickets since they were of the opinion that the compensation amount would cover the amount that could be claimed by the complainants in case of refund of tickets.