In an incident pertaining to justice, at least on the paper, a man missed his flight due to train delay. Later, the SC pushed the Railways to pay the man Rs. 30,000 as compensation. The Supreme Court observed that because the delayed was unexplained and unjustifiable, the man is owed the sum of the compensation.

Details

Stories of someone missing a flight or train due to prior unwarranted delays are a dime in dozen.

Some private companies in the past have made it a point to reimburse their customers in such situations. But government operated commute services such as railways and airline, rarely make such adjustments.

This leads to distrust in the government operated services, and more and more people flock towards private enterprises.


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The Facts of the Matter

Recently, the Supreme Court bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose was hearing a petition by the North Western Railway, that challenged the court on its prior ruling.

The Court had earlier claimed that in instances, where the railways are unable to provide information on the late arrival of train, or fail to share evidences that the delay happened due to incontrollable situations, they would be liable to pay a compensation for such delays.

“Railway is liable to pay…”: SC Order

“Therefore, unless and until the evidence is laid explaining the delay and it is established and proved that delay occurred which was beyond their control and/or even there was some justification for delay, the railway is liable to pay the compensation for delay and late arrival of trains,” the Supreme Court had observed.


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What is the Whole Case About?

The case, which was first filed in 2016, by a person who was to travel to Jammu with his family and ultimately ended up missing his flight. The passenger had to then unnecessarily splurge as they used a taxi to Srinagar. The man first suffered the loss of Rs. 9,000 (air travel fare), Rs. 15,000 (taxi fare) and Rs. 10,000 (boat in Dal Lake, Srinagar)

Passenger Takes to District Consumer Grievance Forum

The passenger took to the consumer grievances forum in Alwar – which asked the North-Western Railways to pay up Rs. 30,000 as compensation to the man. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission also upheld the consumer grievances forum, Alwar.

The man was to be paid Rs. 15,000, Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 5000 (mental agony and litigation payments).

“Every passenger’s time is precious”

In the Supreme Court, the bench of Justices observed, “The railways were required to lead the evidence and explain the late arrival of train to establish and prove that delay occurred because of the reasons beyond their control. At least the railways were required to explain the delay which the railways failed. It cannot be disputed that every passenger’s time is precious and they might have booked the tickets for further journey, like in the present case from Jammu to Srinagar and thereafter further journey.”


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“Public Transportation Must Improve System & Working Culture”

The Supreme Court bench further made an observation about the competition in the markets and claimed that the current era is that of both “competition and accountability”. It further remarked that if the public commuting services want to compete with the private organizations, they have to “improve the system and their working culture”.