BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM AT BANGALORE URBAN

04^th DAY OF AUGUST 2015

O R D E R

SRI. P.V SINGRI, PRESIDENT

The complainant has filed this complaint U/s.12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 against the Opposite Party (herein after referred as OP) claiming compensation for the loss of his belongings, agony and physical torture undergone by him during his journey with costs of this litigation.

2. The brief averments made in the complaint are as under:

The complainant purchased a ticket bearing CJT No.067620 dated 24.05.2014 for himself and for his brother and his wife for their journey to Chennai – Bhubaneshwar – Puri – Gaya – Allahabad – Itarsi and Nagpur through Indian Railways.  Complainant had made reservation in Sleeper Class covering the above mentioned entire journey and back to Bangalore.  The complainant met serious problem during his journey from Gaya to Allahabad, Allahabad to Itarsi and Itarsi to Nagpur.  The complainant though had confirmed Sleeper reservation the berths were not available for them because the reserved berth were occupied by several persons.  The said persons did not vacate the berth despite repeated pleadings.  Generally a travelling ticket examiner will be available in the trains but no such persons were available, hence complainant could not complain to anybody.  However, the complainant did not felt any difficulties during his journey in other sectors.  Due to heavy rush of the passengers, blocking the entrance, passages and occupying their reserved berths the complainant and his companions had to struggle to plough through the crowd of passengers.  This has been physically very very difficult for the complainant since he is aged 75 years.  One can imagine the plight of the complainant with luggage in one hand and the crowd was not allowing him to enter the compartments.  In the process of entering the compartments at one place his shirt was torn, in another place one of the chappal was lost and a hand bag containing religious books purchased in Gaya was also lost.

The complainant sent a detailed complaint to the OP by way of a letter dated 21.07.2014 and the same has been delivered to the OP on 24.07.2014.  In the said letter the complainant had requested the OP to give him adequate compensation for the mental agony and physical torture suffered by him and the loss of his shirt, chappal and one hand bag of books while travelling in the above sectors, due to the severe negligence and deficiency of service on the part of the Railways, within a period of 2 weeks from the date of receipt of the letter.  However, the complainant has not received any reply from the OP till this day.  The complainant was made to wait in the platform for several hours anticipating the arrival of the train.  The Railways did not bother to announce the expected arrival time of the trains.

For the aforesaid reasons, the complainant prays for awarding cost of lost books amounting to Rs.650/-, the value of the chappals amounting to Rs.375/-, the value of the shirt amounting to Rs.450/- and compensation for the mental agony and physical torture suffered by him due to the deficiency of service on the part of the OP.

3. The OP refused to receive the notice issued by this Forum.  Therefore, the OP was placed ex-parte.  Thereafter the complainant filed his affidavit by way of evidence and also written arguments.

4. Perused the allegations made in the complaint, affidavit filed in lieu of oral evidence, documents filed and other materials placed on record.

5. The complainant to substantiate that he undertook his journey to Chennai – Bhubaneshwar – Puri – Gaya – Allahabad – Itarsi and Nagpur from Bangalore and back to Bangalore, produced copies of Railway tickets mentioning the journey undertaken by him along with two companions for the above mentioned place.  Thus it is established by the complainant that he undertook journey to the above mentioned places from Bangalore and returned to Bangalore through Indian Railways by making necessary reservations of the berth for himself and his two companions.

6. It is alleged by the complainant that during his journey from Gaya to Allahabad, Allahabad to Itarsi and Itarsi to Nagpur he suffered great physical torture and mental agony for not having occupied reserved berth as the same were occupied by un authorized persons who did not vacate the reserved berth despite his pleadings.  He further alleged that the above mentioned trains were running late and the Railways authorities did not had curtsey to announce the late running of the trains and the time of the expected arrival thereby putting him to great hardship and inconvenience.  The complainant submitted that the reserved bogies were fully crowded and even he could not reach his reserved berth comfortably and was forced to go through the crowded compartments as a result of which his shirt was torn, he lost his chappal so also a hand bag containing certain religious books which he had purchased at Gaya.  The complainant contends that there was no travelling ticket examiner in the said bogies during the said journey from Gaya to Allahabad, Allahabad to Itarsi and Itarsi to Nagpur.  Therefore, he could not complain to anybody and was compel to travel all the 3 nights by sitting in the crowded compartment despite having reserved berth.  Therefore, it is alleged by the complainant that he was made to suffer in the manner stated above due to the deficiency of service on the part of the officials of Indian Railways.

7. As already mentioned above, the OP refused to receive the notice issued by this Forum and failed to contest the claim put forth by the complainant.  We do not find any reasons to disbelieve the allegations made by the complainant against the OP.  Admittedly the complainant is a senior citizen aged more than 75 years and certainly he must have been put to great hardship, inconvenience and mental agony in travelling throughout the night sitting in a crowded compartment despite having reserved berth.  The non availability of the travelling ticket examiner or any other Railway Official in the compartment from whom the complainant could get help in occupying his reserved berth amounts to deficiency of service on the part of the OP.

8. The OP is duty bound to provide a berth to a passenger whenever necessary reservation has been made by him in advance.  Non providing the reserved berth to the concerned passenger that too during the night journey and to senior citizen certainly cause him great hardship and inconvenience.  Moreover in this case the trains were running late which was not at all announced by concerned in the public address system thereby making the complainant to wait for the train indefinitely without knowing as to when the train would arrive to the Railway station.  This certainly must have caused lot of anxiety to the complainant.  The late running of the trains also made him to miss pooja ceremonies which he proposed to perform at Allahabad, Nagpur and other places.

9. The complainant has successfully established that because of the deficiency of service on the part of the OP, he was put to great hardship and inconvenience and also lost his valuable belongings and underwent hardship, inconvenience and mental agony.  Therefore, the complainant is entitled for adequate compensation and the value of the materials damaged and lost and the OP is liable to pay the same.  In the given facts and circumstances, we are of the opinion that the following amount of compensation is sufficient to meet the ends of justice.

10. The complainant made an application on 17.04.2015 seeking compensation to his brother and his wife who accompanied him during the above said journey.  The said passengers are not entitled for compensation since they are not parities to the present complaint and the complainant cannot seek compensation in this complaint on their behalf.

11. In the result, we proceed to pass the following:       

 O R D E R

The complaint filed by the complainant U/s.12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is allowed in part.  OP is directed to pay a sum of Rs.1,475/- being the value of the books and the chappals lost by the complainant including damage to his shirt.  Further the OP is directed to pay a compensation of Rs.20,000/- to the complainant for the untold hardship and inconvenience and mental agony suffered by him during the above said journey together with costs of Rs.2,500/-.

The OP shall comply the order passed by this Forum within a month from today.

Furnish free copy of this order to both the parties.

(Dictated to the Stenographer, got it transcribed and corrected, pronounced in the Forum on this 04^th August 2015)

MEMBER                            MEMBER                     PRESIDENT

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