Indian Railways fined for evicting elderly man travelling on ticket booked for 3013

Indian Railways

It took five long years for a septuagenarian to get justice after he was evicted from a train for travelling on a ticket dated 1,000 years in the future. The vitcim, 73-year-old Vishnu Kant Shukla had boarded the Himgiri Express on November 19, 2013 and was headed to Jaunpur from Saharanpur.

When the train ticket examiner (TTE) checked Shukla's ticket it was found to be dated 19-11-3013 instead of 2013. The TTE then fined Shukla and evicted him from the train at Moradabad.

Shukla, who had retired as head of the Hindi department from a reputed college approached a consumer court, which in its final order, slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 and an additional Rs 3,000 as compensation on the Railways, the Times of India reported.

In his complaint, Shukla said that the TTE had humiliated him in front of other passengers and asked him to pay a penalty of Rs 800.

The case went on for five years. Recalling the proceedings, the septuagenarian said that “a lot of things happened.”

The court in its ruling observed, “To de-board a person of an advanced age in the middle of a journey causes a great amount of physical strain and mental harassment. This clearly shows there were flaws in services provided by the department.”