BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM, AMRITSAR.

Consumer Complaint No.362-14

Date of Institution:07-07-2014

Date of Decision:27-04-2015  

Munish Devgan son of Dinesh Kumar, E8/106, Street No.2, Bhalla Colony, Chheharta, Amritsar.

Complainant

Versus

1. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited, 9^th Floor, Bank of India Building, 16, Parliament Street, New Delhi-110001 through is M.D/ Director/ Authorized Officer.  
2. Oriental Bank of Commerce, Chheharta, Amritsar through its Branch Manager/ Principal Officer.

Opposite Parties

Complaint under section 11 and 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

Present: For the Complainant: In person.

              For the Opposite Party No.1: Sh.M.S.Chhina, Advocate

              For the Opposite Party No.2: Sh.M.L.Sharma, Advocate

Quorum:

Sh.Bhupinder Singh, President

Ms.Kulwant Kaur Bajwa, Member

Mr.Anoop Sharma, Member  

Order dictated by:

Ms.Kulwant Kaur, Member.

1. Present complaint has been filed by Sh.Munish Devgan  under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act alleging therein that he booked railway tickets from railway official site irctc.com under login id: devganji and ticket id 4224363 almost 4 times and have to pay the expenses &  extra online charge Rs.11.24 of ticket reservation through OBC bank via net/online banking process. Every time when he booked his railway ticket, after two days of the booking, an amount of Rs.11/- has been deducted from his account without any intimation to him. This happened four times with him. On information, it has come to notice that the said charges are on account of IRCTC Commission as mentioned on the bank statement. Thereafter, the complainant clicked the image of his passbook and send to both OBC Bank customer care & IRCTC customer care, but they did not give any satisfactory reply. They blame to each other for this deduction.    Alleging the same to be deficiency in service, complaint was filed seeking directions to the opposite parties to refund the excess charges which has been deducted i.e. Rs.44/- alongwith interest.  Compensation amounting to Rs.17.60 lacs and litigation expenses were also demanded.
2. On notice, Opposite Party No.1  appeared and filed written version in which it was submitted that the complainant has booked seats through IRCTC Website and every time Rs.11.24 were added to the booking charges as internet service charges as the complainant got booked e-tickets.  It has been specifically mentioned on the e-tickets in serial No.’f’ Bank charges if any will be payable extra (For details of bank charges, kindly refer to terms and conditions on ‘www.irctc.co.in’ wherein it is enumerated that the terms and conditions will apply if anybody wishes to use the India Railways on-line ticket booking service offered through the irctc website. It is further mentioned that once one register himself on the ‘irctc site’ he is deemed to have agreed to the terms and conditions set forth  therein. If anybody does not agree with al these terms and conditions, one must not transact on this website. Once one has clicked the ‘I Agree’ buttons at the buttons of these terms and conditions one has entered into a formal agreement with IRCTC for the purpose of transactions on this website. Opposite Party No.1 has  only charged the amount of the tickets  as per the IRCTC e-ticketing service electronic reservation  slip Personal user). If the bank has charged the amount of Rs.11/- from user account that is bank charges for their services as per their rules. IRCTC has received only the fare and internet services charges from the bank as shown in the e-tickets and Rs.11/- deducted by the bank are service charges of the bank. While denying and controverting other allegations, dismissal of complaint was prayed.
3. Opposite Party No.2  appeared  separately and filed written version in which it was submitted that the complainant booked  railway ticket from railway official site irctc.com. Moreover, the charges of Rs.11/- have been debited to the account of the complainant 4 times as the complainant booked the ticket four times, but it is specifically denied that the charges have been deducted without any intimation. At the time of online booking of ticket, transaction charges were clearly  mentioned on the web-page and the customer/ complainant was fully aware of the charges leveled by the bank. Copy of webpage clearly shows that Rs.10/- + service tax is applicable and this explanation was  given to the complainant at the initial stage only and he was fully satisfied from the answer/ explanation of  Opposite Party No.2- bank. While denying and controverting other allegations, dismissal of complaint was prayed.
4. Complainant tendered into evidence his affidavit Ex.C1 alongwith document Ex.C2 and closed the evidence on behalf of the complainant.
5. Opposite Party No.1 tendered into evidence affidavit of Sh.Sukhwinder Pal Singh Ex.OP1/1 alongwith documents Ex.OP1/2 to Ex.OP1/5 and closed the evidence on behalf of the Opposite Party No.1.
6. Opposite Party No.2 tendered into evidence affidavit of Sh.Rajinder Sharma, Chief Manager Ex.OP2/1 and copy of webpage Ex.OP2/2 and closed the evidence on behalf of Opposite Party No.2.
7. We have carefully gone through the pleadings of the parties; arguments advanced by the complainant and  ld.counsel for the Opposite Parties  and have appreciated the evidence produced on record by both the parties with the valuable assistance of the ld.counsel for both Opposite Parties.
8. The case of the complainant is that he got booked his railway tickets from railway official site irctc.com under login id: devganji and ticket id 4224363  for 4 times and he paid expenses &  extra online charge Rs.11.24 every time of  ticket reservation through OBC bank via net/online banking process. Complainant alleges that every time when he booked his railway ticket, after two days of his booking, the amount of Rs.11/- has been deducted from his account without any intimation to the complainant and this happened four times with the complainant. The complainant approached  Opposite Party No.2 Bank as to why they had deducted this amount. The Opposite Party No.2-Bank replied that it is a  IRCTC Commission as mentioned on the bank statement. The complainant also lodged complaint with  OBC Bank customer care & IRCTC customer care, but they did not give any satisfactory reply, rather blamed to each other for this deduction. Complainant alleges that Opposite Parties  have deducted Rs.44/- in excess from the account of the complainant. As such, he demanded Rs.17.60 lacs as compensation alongwith costs, etc.
9. Whereas the case of the Opposite Party No.1 is that the complainant has booked seats through IRCTC Website and every time Rs.11.24 were added to the booking charges  of the complainant as internet service charges as the complainant got booked e-tickets.  It has been specifically mentioned on the e-tickets in serial No.’f’ Bank charges if any will be payable extra (For details of bank charges, kindly refer to terms and conditions on ‘www.irctc.co.in’ wherein it is specifically mentioned that the terms and conditions will apply if anybody wishes to use the India Railways on-line ticket booking service offered through the irctc website. Once one got register himself on the ‘irctc site’ he is deemed to have agreed to the terms and conditions set forth  therein. Once one has clicked the ‘I Agree’ buttons at the buttons of these terms and conditions one has entered into a formal agreement with IRCTC for the purpose of transactions on this website. Opposite Party No.1 has  only charged the amount of the tickets  as per the IRCTC e-ticketing service electronic reservation  slip Personal user). If the bank has charged the amount of Rs.11/- from user account that is bank charges for their services as per their rules. Ld.counsel for the Opposite Party No.1 submitted that there is no deficiency of service on the part of the Opposite Party No.1 qua the complainant.
10. Whereas the case of Opposite Party No.2 is that Opposite Party No.2 has charged the transaction charges of online booking of tickets as clearly  mentioned on the web-page and the  complainant was fully aware of the charges leveled by the bank. It has been clearly mentioned on the  webpage that Rs.10/- + service tax is applicable shall be chargable. Rs. 11/- have been deducted  from the account of the complainant 4 times as the complainant booked e-ticket four times. At the time of online booking of e-ticket, the transaction charges were charged as clearly mentioned on  webpage Ex.OP2/2. The customer was fully aware of the charges leveled by the bank. This explanation was  also given to the complainant at the initial stage and he was fully satisfied, but inspite of that, he has lodged the present complaint. Ld.counsel for the Opposite Party No.2 submitted that there is no deficiency of service on the part of the Opposite Party No.2 qua the complainant.
11. From the entire above discussion, we have come to the conclusion that the complainant got booked railway tickets from railway official site irctc.com under login id: devganji and ticket id 4224363  for 4 times and he paid expenses &  extra online charge Rs.11.24 every time of  ticket reservation through OBC bank via net/online banking process. From the perusal of e-tickets Ex.OP1/2, Ex.OP1/3, Ex.OP1/4 and Ex.OP1/5, it stands fully proved on record that it has been specifically mentioned  on the e-tickets in clause ’f’ that bank charges, if any, will be payable extra (For details of bank charges, kindly refer to terms and conditions on ‘www.irctc.co.in’. It has been clearly  mentioned that the terms and conditions will apply if the consumer wishes to use the India Railways on-line ticket booking service offered through the irctc website and the complainant himself has accepted this agreement and he has used  ‘irctc website’  and got aforesaid e-tickets booked through Opposite Party No.2 and as per the terms and conditions of the bank mentioned on the webpage Ex.OP2/2 wherein it has been mentioned that transaction charges Rs.10/- + service tax is applicable, in all Rs. 11/- have been deducted  from the account of the complainant 4 times as the complainant booked e-ticket four times. Opposite Parties were justified in making the deduction of this amount of Rs.11/- every time of booking of e-ticket on IRCTC website through bank and the bank officials were justified in charging the bank charges as well as service tax payable to the government.     Consequently we hold that complainant has failed to prove on record any deficiency of service on the part of the Opposite Parties.
12. Resultantly the complaint is without merit and the same is hereby dismissed with no order as to costs. Copies of the order be furnished to the parties free of costs. File is ordered to be consigned to the record room. Case could not be disposed of within the stipulated period due to heavy pendency of the cases in this Forum.

Dated: 27-04-2015.                                                   (Bhupinder Singh)                                                                                               President

hrg                                                 (Kulwant Kaur Bajwa)    (Anoop Sharma)

              Member                         Member