Railways Fined Rs 13,000 by Consumer Court as Passenger Carries Ticket Dated 3013

Saharanpur, June 14: The Railway consumer court has slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the Railways for causing mental harassment to retired professor Vishnu Kant Shukla and an additional Rs 3,000. The 73-year-old retired professor of Saharanpur got justice after five years for the humiliation and embarrassment he had to undergo in the year 2013 as the ticket he was carrying while travelling on board Himgiri express train was printed as 3013.

Since Shukla's ticket was dated 1000 years ahead, he was asked by the ticket checker to get off the train for not carrying a proper ticket. Shukla was quoted in The Times of India news report as saying, "I retired as head of the Hindi department from JV Jain Degree College in Saharanpur. In short, I am not a person who would travel by train with a fake ticket and here was a TTE who humiliated me in front of everyone, demanded that I pay a penalty of Rs 800, and even got me evicted from the train. It was an important journey as I had to visit my friend whose wife had expired."

After five years of court proceedings, the court gave its verdict in his favour. The court in its order observed, "To de-board, a person of advanced age in the middle of a journey causes a great amount of physical strain and mental harassment to him. If the passenger did not check his ticket at the counter, this does not absolve the Railways of its responsibility. This clearly shows that there were flaws in services provided by the department.”

Shukla was reportedly visiting his friend's place who lost his wife, to pay condolence to the family. However, due to railways' mistake, the ticket checker asked him to get down at Moradabad station. He was on his way to Jaunpur to meet his friend.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 14, 2018 11:52 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).