Supreme Court upholds compensation to traveller who missed flight due to delayed train

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the orders of the National, State and District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums directing Northern Western Railway to pay ₹35,000 as compensation to a person who missed a flight owing to the delay in the arrival of a train (Northern Western Railway v. Sanjay Shukla)..The Division Bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose observed that in the interests of competition and accountability, public transport had to improve to survive.“If the public transportation has to survive and compete with private players, they have to improve the system and their working culture. Citizen/passenger cannot be at the the mercy of the authorities/administration. Somebody has to accept the responsibility.”.The orders of the consumer fora directed payment of ₹15,000 for taxi expenses, ₹10,000 towards booking expenses and ₹5,000 each towards mental agony and litigation expenses to the complainant..The dispute arose after the complainant and his family travelled by the Ajmer-Jammu Express Train. They were meant to arrive at Jammu at 8:10 AM and were set to take a flight from Jammu to Srinagar at noon. However, the train was delayed by four hours and reached Jammu at noon, causing the complainant to miss the connecting flight..Following this, the complainant approached the District Forum which granted him compensation, observing that there was a deficiency in service and because of that the complainant suffered. Both the State Commission and the National Commission confirmed this order, prompting the Railways to approach the Supreme Court..Arguing before the apex court, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti vehemently argued that late running of a train cannot be said to be deficiency in service on the part of the Railways and that there was no liability on the part of the Railways to pay compensation for the same. It was also submitted that there may be number of reasons for delay of trains..However, the Bench found that since no evidence was led by the Railways explaining the delay of the train, it was not proved that the delay occurred due to reasons beyond their control. Therefore, unless the same was established, the Railways was liable to pay compensation for delay and late arrival of trains, the Court held..[Read Order Here]