Time is precious: Railways to pay ₹30,000 to man who missed flight as Supreme Court orders

The Supreme Court said passengers can not be at the mercy of the authorities. Somebody has to take responsibility for train delay, the SC said as the additional solicitor general said train delay is not railways' deficiency in the service.

The Supreme Court has recently ordered the Railways to pay ₹30,000 to a complainant who missed a flight from Jammu to Srinagar because of the delay in the Ajmer-Jammu Express. The delay was of four hours. The order of the compensation was originally passed by District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Alwar and confirmed by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi. A bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose upheld the order after the Nothern Western Railway appealed to the top court.

Supreme Court orders railways to give ₹30,000 to a man who missed his flight because of a 4-hour delay of a train. 

The Northern Western Railway will now have to pay ₹15,000 for taxi expenses, ₹10,000 towards booking expenses and ₹5,000 for mental agony and litigation expenses, Livelaw reported.

Because he missed the flight owing to the delay in the train, the complainant (the respondent in the case) had to travel to Srinagar by taxi which made him lose ₹9,000 as the airfare. He had to spend ₹15,000 for the taxi fare and complained of a loss of ₹10,000 on account of booking a boat in Dal Lake.

As additional solicitor general submitted before the court that the late running of a train could not be said to be deficient in service of the part of the railways, the Supreme Court bench said that the railways were required to "lead the evidence and explain the late arrival of the train to establish and prove that the delay occurred because of the reasons beyond their control. At least the railways were required to explain the delay which the railways failed".

"It can not be disputed that every passenger's time is precious and they might have booked the tickets for the further journey, like in the present case from Jammu to Srinagar and thereafter further journey," the bench said.

"These are the days of competition and accountability. If public transportation has to survive and compete with private players, they have to improve the system and their working culture. Citizens/passengers can not be at the mercy of the authorities/administration. Somebody has to accept the responsibility," the bench noted.