Bengaluru Couple Fined Rs 22,000 For 'Ticketless' Travel On Train And Their Son Got Rs 40,000 In Compensation

In a surprising turn of events, an elderly couple, after being charged over Rs 22,000 as a fine, won a compensation of Rs 40,000 from the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The Bengaluru couple was travelling on the Rajdhani Express and had a distressing experience when they were labelled “ticketless travellers”, despite having confirmed AC first-class tickets. The matter was taken to the consumer court along with a complaint against the chief booking officer of SWR and IRCTC officials.

Whitefield resident Alok Kumar booked the confirmed tickets for his parents, aged 77 and 71, for the journey in March last year, using the IRCTC portal, and paid Rs 6,995 for the same. However, it turned out to be traumatic for the couple after the ticket examiner checked their PNR number and claimed that the status of their confirmed tickets showed “no room”. While the couple showed their confirmed tickets to the ticket checker, he refused to believe so and instead tagged them as “ticketless travellers” and charged Rs 22,300 as a fine, The Times of India reported.

Upon hearing the harrowing experience from his parents, Alok Kumar immediately complained with the IRCTC helpline via email but got no response. After getting zero responses from IRCTC or officials from SWR in Bengaluru, Kumar in April 2022 reached out to the Bengaluru Urban Third Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in Shantinagar and filed a complaint against the chief booking officer of SWR and IRCTC officials.

After the SWR officials failed to appear in court, the IRCTC counsel dismissed the case, stating that it is just an online ticketing platform for passengers and is not involved in taking penalties. Following that, in a recent verdict, the consumer court ordered a payment of Rs 30,000 as compensation to Kumar’s parents and another Rs 10,000 for Kumar’s litigation expenses.

Notably, this is not the only Railway incident that has come to the fore recently. Earlier, a video went viral showing an AC first-class compartment being packed with many ticketless travellers, thus raising questions about the point of paying extra for first-class tickets and also about the safety of the passengers.

The video, shared by one of the confirmed passengers in the first-class compartment, was shot on the Mahananda 15483.