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If Rajdhani Express, which is counted among the most VIP and premium trains of Indian Railways, starts getting delayed by hours and due to this you suffer a loss of thousands, then it is natural for the common traveler to get worried. Most people accept this as their bad luck, but a couple from Kota did not do so. He fought a legal battle against the loss due to his train being late and missing his next flight. The result was that after the District Consumer Forum, now the State Consumer Forum has also given a big decision in favor of the passengers, rejecting the arguments of the Railways.
What was the whole matter?
This incident is of 17 December 2017. Anil Kumar Rana and his wife Anita Rana, living in Kota, Rajasthan, had made a plan to go to Kerala (Trivandrum). He had booked Air India flight ticket from Delhi to Trivandrum about a month ago (9 November 2017), which he got for ₹ 33,929 due to booking ahead of time.
He had to reach Delhi from Kota to catch the flight. For this he used the premium train considered to be the most reliable. Rajdhani Express (Train No. 12431) Booked the ticket in.
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Train Schedule: Rajdhani Express was to depart from Kota at 6:55 am and reach Hazrat Nizamuddin station of Delhi at 12:40 pm.
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Flight Schedule: His flight was from Delhi airport at 6:05 pm on the same day.
That means the couple had enough time of more than 5 hours to reach Delhi and go to the airport from there.
4 hours delay and heavy damages had to be paid
On the day of travel, Rajdhani Express suddenly got late and reached Nizamuddin station at 4:50 pm instead of 12:40 pm. By the time the couple got down from the train and reached Delhi airport, their flight had already taken off.
Due to missing the flight, the couple had to spend the whole night at the airport. They were forced to pay a heavy price to reach Kerala the next day. New air ticket worth ₹72,930 Had to buy. Apart from this, the expenses of hotel and mental problems were incurred separately.
Railways dragged to court: Complete details of compensation
After returning to Kota, Anil Kumar sent written complaints to the Railways several times in the year 2018 and demanded compensation for the loss, but the Railways did not listen to him. After this, after sending a legal notice in December 2018, he filed a case in the District Consumer Forum of Kota.
Railways argued in the court that trains are often late due to operational, technical and safety reasons, hence it cannot be considered as ‘deficiency in service’. But the court completely rejected these tired excuses of the Railways. The court held the Railways guilty in August 2023 and ordered it to pay the following damages:
Railways also lost in the State Forum
Not accepting defeat, Railways filed an appeal in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission against this decision of the District Consumer Forum. But the state forum has also completely upheld the decision of the lower court. The court made it clear that if a passenger is taking a premium train ticket, he expects to reach on time. Delaying the train by hours without any concrete and emergency reason and causing loss of passengers is gross negligence in service.
This historic decision is a big example for crores of railway passengers of the country who often lose their precious time and money due to late trains.
