Railways to pay Rs 5000 for forgetting to wake up a passenger

The railways has been fined Rs 5,000 for forgetting to wake up a passenger on the 139 service.

The complainant, advocate Girish Garg of Betul district in MP, was headed for Kota on the Coimbatore-Jaipur Superfast Express on June 13, 2015. “As the train’s scheduled time to reach Kota was 1.40am, I dialled 139, the number provided by railways as customer care number, and requested the executive for destination-alert and wake-up alert services provided through the number,” Garg told.
“The executive who spoke to me assured me that the service request had been registered, so I went to sleep. But neither did I receive any destination alert nor the wake-up call,” he said. “I managed to wake up at Kota station somehow but had to rush to alight from the train. I felt it was a deficiency in service and filed a plea before the consumer disputes redressal forum and requested the court to direct railways to pay me Rs 20,000 for mental harassment,” he said.

The railways in its reply said that no fee is charged against the 139 service, hence there has been no deficiency in service. It requested the court to dismiss the petition. The Betul district consumer grievance redressal forum however felt that there was deficiency in service by the railways and ordered it on April 26, 2017, to pay Rs 5,000 to the applicant as compensation for mental harassment within a month of the order. It also ordered the railways to pay Rs 2,000 as legal expenses to Garg.