By Smt. PREETHI SIVARAMAN.C, MEMBER

1.Case of the complainant:-

          On 18/03/2019 complainant and his wife travelled from  Indore to Shornur  in Ahalya Nagar Super Fast  Express.  The train will reach at Shornur on 20/03/2019.  They started their journey on  18/03/2019 in third class A/c coach  with seat No. 15 and 16.  On that day while  they were travelling , at about  10 PM complainant and his wife had some disturbances as if  something was  creeping  on their body and  they found and  realised that  those were rats. They informed about the troubles and their inability to sleep to the coach in-charge  and  he said that he will do the needful at the earliest. Unfortunately he did not take any steps  and complainant and his wife  could not sleep throughout the night.

2.         On 19/03/2019 morning   the co-passengers and the complainant informed  about this to the TTR  and he assured the passengers that he will look into the matter  on the same day . On the same day evening complainant noticed that their luggage  carrying expensive clothes especially valuable sarees in the bag which were blessed at the time of marriage were completely destroyed and damaged.  Thereafter they approached the TTR Mr. Subramanian and showed him the damaged clothes and food and explained the struggling they experienced during their stay in the cabin.  Then the TTR advised the complainant to inform the incident to the Shornur Station Master.  After a long argument with TTR,  he put a signature in the  eyewitness letter. 

3.     Then complainant tweet all matter that happened to them on twitter of Indian Railway and as a result of that he received a text message that their complaint will be attended and will have a solution.  On 20/03/2019 they received another message stating that Indian Railway has successfully managed the complaint, but no actions were taken.   

4.     Complainant and  his wife  had lost  their food packed for three days which carried with them  from home  and  they had lost  some valuable  sarees having  religious and ethical  values.   Railway denied whole things that happened at the train.  But complainant again stated that the text message he got from Railway Complaint Department VM IRSMSA (Complaint No.W/WR/RJT000507676) which was registered on 19/03/2019 at 7.13 PM and  was closed on  20/03/2019 at 10.18 am without any investigation on the same.  But no actions were taken by Railway. Hence this complaint.

5.        Claim of the complainant is that he is entitled to get  Rs. 2,50,000/- (Rupees Two lakh and fifty thousand only) for the insecurities, mental and physical torture,  suffered  and for the sleepless  night and  cost of the damaged  articles.      

6.        On admission of the complaint notice was issued to the opposite party and notice served on them and they appeared before the Commission and filed version and affidavit.

7.       In their version, they denied all the allegations in the complaint except those that are expressly admitted.  They again stated that the complaint is bad for non-joinder of necessary parties.   For Ahilya Nagari Express, the primary maintenance Depot is at Thiruvananthapuram and secondary Maintenance Depot  is at Indore.  Hence  Divisional Railway Manager, Thiruvananthapuram and Divisional Railway Manager Ratlam are necessary party to this proceedings.  Moreover all the documentary evidences to substantiate the contentions of  opposite party  is  in the custody of Divisional Railway Manager , Thiruvananthapuram and Ratlam. But  till today the complainant has not taken any steps  to implead  the Divisional Railway  Managers of  Thiruvanthapuram  and Ratlam as a party.   

8.         They again stated that complainant had travelled in B1 coach and primary maintenance of AC coaches in the Ahilya Nagar Express between Thiruvananthapuram  to Indore were disinfected with proper chemicals including rodent control treatment carried out on 15/03/2019 at Thiruvananthapuram Division.  In addition to that rat traps and glue pads were provided at vulnerable locations to catch the rats  and the rodent control treatment  is given  during every primary attention. They again stated  that there is absolutely no evidence to show the alleged damage caused to the complainant if at all and no evidence is produced to substantiate  the alleged damages  either before the Railway Authorities or this Commission. 

9.       Moreover they stated that no allegation of rodent menace   was reported from this train except this.  Hence the allegation of rodent menace in Train No. 22645 on 18/03/2019 is false and hereby denied by the opposite party.  Complainant is trying to enrich  himself  at the cost of  exchequer.  Again  they stated that complainant herein  has neither intimated  nor exhausted  those remedial measures  available  from the  grievance redressal cell at Divisional and Head quarters level.  Hence there is no deficiency of service on the part of opposite party.

10.        In order to substantiate the case of the complainant, he filed an affidavit in lieu of Chief examination and the documents he produced were marked as Ext. A1 and  A2. Ext.A1 is the original complaint  dated 19/03/2019 in a  paper  provided  by SC Railway  wrote by  complainant and  it is counter singed by Mr. Subramanian TTR,   Ext.A2 is the original  travelling ticket of complainant  and his wife dated 18/03/2019.

11.   Thereafter opposite party also filed   counter affidavit  but no documents filed.  After verifying the complaint , version and affidavits filed by both parties, the following points arise for consideration:-

1. Whether there is any deficiency in service on the part of   opposite party.
2. Relief and cost.

12.   Point No.1 & 2:-     

          Case of the complainant is that while travelling  from  Indore to Shornur  in Ahilya Nagar  Super Fast Express  on 18/03/2019, they had faced some disturbances and troubles  due to  rats  creeping over their body.  They were unable to sleep and food stuffs  and some valuable sarees were damaged  due to  that.  They immediately complained about this to the coach in charge and thereafter  on 19/03/2019 they filed a complaint  in writing  to the  TTR, but no action taken by the Railway.   

13.      In their version  opposite party stated that  for Ahilya Nagari Express , the primary maintenance Depot  is at Thiruvananthapuram and secondary maintenance Department is  at Indore.  Hence  this complaint is bad for  non-joinder of  necessary parties.  They simply stating the above  facts  but not produced documents   to prove their contentions.  They can easily produce documents to prove the role of  Divisional Railway Managers of Thiruvananthapuram and Ratlam.  From the above contention we are on the opinion that it is a mere statement to escape from the liability.  Indian Railway is the largest public sector department which connecting  north to south,  east to west and vice versa. 

14.           Opposite party again contented that , the complainant and his wife were travelled in B1 coach  and the primary maintenance of AC coaches in that particular train were disinfected with proper chemicals  including  rodent control treatment carried out on 15/03/2019 at Thiruvananthapuram Division.  Opposite party mentioned the exact date of cleaning and disinfection done by them, it is their duty to produce the documents pertaining to that.  It is very easy for them to produce the concerned document which shows the disinfection process they have done in the train.   Otherwise how the Commission find out opposite party had disinfected train or not.  Moreover opposite party stated in their version and affidavit that   they have provided rat traps and glue pads at vulnerable locations to catch the rats  and the rodent control treatment is given during every primary attention.  But  opposite party never stated in their version and affidavit that , who will catch the rats  by using  the rat traps and glue pads.  If it is the duty of travellers, then it is the duty of railway to provide the rat traps and glue pads to complainant and co-passengers.   But complainant never know about this  kind of  mechanism  to  catch rats and opposite party never provided this to complainant. Moreover it is so funny to read about the rat traps and glue pad provided by Railway.  Do the poor passenger also have the duty to catch   rats inside the cabin?

15.      Another contention of opposite party is that there was no allegation other than this about rodent menace was reported from this train on that day.  Hence the allegation is false. But we are on the opinion that the contention of opposite party is    something very negligible.  Nobody will approach Railway with a complaint like this because the attitude of Railway is something like this.  Complainant filed a complaint on very next day before the TTR  and he informed about this to  the coach in charge on the same day , but  no actions were taken by them  and the Railway.

16.     Another contention of opposite party is  that to redress the grievance of passengers Railway has various  grievance redressal mesasures, but complainant  has neither intimated  nor  exhausted  those remedial measures available at Divisional and Head quarters level .  But we are on the opinion that it is the duty of coach in charge and TTR to report the complaint in writing to the grievance redressal  measures of Railway.  But even after obtaining the complaint of complainant they did not report into the grievance redressal cell.  Poor passengers have no idea about this kind of mechanism which existed inside the Railway.  Hence there is clear deficiency of service from the side of opposite parties.  Moreover they did not file documents  to prove their contentions raised by them and to disapprove the contentions raised by complainant in his complaint.

17.        Complainant herein   did not file documents  to prove  that  what are the items  they had lost by  rodent menace. More over they did not file document and even not mentioned about the cost of that particular saree having religious and ethical values.  Even he did not file a purchase bill to show the value of saree.  More over complainant not mentioned about the items inside his bag.  In the affidavit he is stated that there is pendrive and CD of all the photographs, videos of that particular day.  But he did not produce that before the Commission.  So we are unable to arrive  in a conclusion about the cost of the items  he had lost  from his bag . No evidence regarding that. Complainant stated in his complaint about twitter complaint he made on Railway website and the responses he received were enclosed along with the complaint which he enclosed in a pendrive  and he enclosed the  video footage and the photographs in a CD.   But  complainant  not produced  that CD and pendrive before the Commission. But from the complaint and affidavit it is clear that complainant and his wife suffered disturbances due to rodent menace and they have lost food articles etc. If complainant and his wife, unknowingly eat those food stuffs which were spoiled by rats they have got infection from that food stuffs. More over complainant stated that even after he made a complaint, the toilets of the train were not clean.   Hence from the above facts we are on the opinion that complainant suffered a lot while travelling from Indore to Shornur.  He faced lot of troubles  in AC coach  due to the  non cleanliness  of cabin of Railway.  So there is clear deficiency of service from the side of Railway.    Moreover  Railway  did not taken any steps to redress the grievance of complainant.  He had already filed a complaint before the Railway on the very next day in writing.  Hence we allow this complaint holding that opposite party is deficient in service.

18.  Hence we allow this complaint  as follows:-

1. The opposite party is directed to refund  Rs.4210/-(Rupees Four thousand two hundred and ten only) to the complainant as the amount he had already spent for taking tickets.
2. The opposite party is also  directed to pay compensation of Rs. 5000/- (Rupees Five thousand only)to the complainant on account of deficiency in service on the part of opposite party and thereby caused mental agony, physical hardships and sufferings to the complainant.
3. The opposite party is also  directed to pay Rs.5000/-(Rupees Five thousand only) as cost of the proceedings.

          If the above said amount is not paid to the complainant within 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of this order, the opposite party is liable to pay the interest at the rate of 12% per annum on the said amount from the date of receipt of the copy of this order till realisation.

                   Dated this 28^th day of February, 2022.

MOHANDASAN.K, PRESIDENT

PREETHI SIVARAMAN.C, MEMBER

APPENDIX

Witness examined on the side of the complainant                : Nil

Documents marked on the side of the complainant               : Ext.A1& A2

Ext.A1 : Original complaint  dated 19/03/2019 in a  paper  provided  by SC Railway 

              wrote by  complainant and  it is counter singed by Mr. Subramanian TTR.

Ext.A2  : Original  travelling ticket of complainant  and his wife dated 18/3/2019. Witness examined on the side of the opposite party              : Nil

Documents marked on the side of the opposite party            : Nil

MOHANDASAN.K, PRESIDENT

PREETHI SIVARAMAN.C, MEMBER