Elderly couple fined for ‘ticketless travel’, son wins Rs 40,000

BENGALURU: An elderly couple had to not only bear the ignominy of being labelled ‘ticketless travellers’ but also pay a penalty Rs 22,300 onboard Rajdhani Express despite having valid first AC tickets. Infuriated, their son sued the chief booking officer of South Western Railway (SWR), Bengaluru, and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the ticketing agency, for lapses. A consumer court, after hearing all parties, recently ordered the payment of Rs 30,000 as compensation to the couple for harassment, refund of the fine amount extracted, and Rs 10,000 towards their ward’s litigation expenses.

On March 15, 2022, Whitefield resident Alok Kumar booked I class tickets for Rajdhani Express from Delhi to Barauni through the IRCTC portal for his 77-year-old father and 71-year-old mother. Having secured confirmed seats — A1 1 and A1 3 — by paying Rs 6,995 for the journey, Kumar, who is based out of Bengaluru, sent the tickets to his parents.

But the couple’s journey on May 21, 2022 turned out to be traumatic when the train ticket examiner (TTE) ascertained their PNR number and bizarrely stated that the status of their confirmed tickets was ‘no room’. Stunned by the turn of events, the septuagenarian passengers showed their confirmation tickets but the TTE tagged them as “ticketless travellers” and slapped a fine of Rs 22,300 on them. The couple had no choice but to pay the amount.

The parents narrated their ordeal to their son. He immediately lodged a complaint with the IRCTC helpline via email, but got no response. With neither IRCTC nor officials from SWR in Bengaluru bothering to address the issue, Kumar in April 2022 approached the Bengaluru Urban third additional district consumer disputes redressal commission in Shantinagar with a complaint against the chief booking officer of SWR and IRCTC officials.

SWR officials failed to appear despite being served a legal notice, while the IRCTC counsel submitted that the case should be dismissed as it is only an online ticketing platform for passengers and isn’t involved in levying penalty, which had been done by the railway officials.