A wrongly sent SMS to a passenger cost Rs 25,000 to IRCTC

People wait on a platform as a train is unloaded in a railway station in New Delhi, India February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton - RTX2Z5N7

IRCTC was recently taken to consumer court and slapped with a fine of Rs 25,000 for sending the wrong SMS to passengers Mahabodhi Express.

The mistake proved dear for the railway's ticket booking service provider after the passenger, Vijay Pratap Singh, a resident of Vaishali in NCR had sued it for deficiency in service, as per a report in India Today.

The passengers, son and father duo, were set to board the train, destined for Allahabad from Delhi on May 29 and just before the journey had received an SMS from IRCTC that said that the train had been cancelled and the passengers should cancel their tickets in case they wanted a refund.

Later, the stance changed and it turned out that the message was sent by mistake and the train did depart from Delhi that day. Singh decided to take the legal turn after IRCTC failed to respond to their requests for a refund.

Vijay cancelled both the tickets and booked his son a cab to go to Allahabad as he had some urgent work there. Singh had only got the refund amount of one ticket- as the other one was booked on Tatkal.

He approached the Delhi district consumer forum seeking a refund for the cab fare and the ticket price, the forum directed IRCTC to pay Rs 25,000 to Singh as a compensation for causing “stress, harassment and financial hardship”.

"Assuming that the SMS (by the railways) was sent inadvertently, another SMS could have been sent, recalling the earlier message and intimating that the train would leave from Allahabad at the appointed date and time, which was not done. This itself shows and proves the deficiency significantly," the court observed as per the report.