If there is someone here whose pocket hasn’t ever been pinched or who doesn’t know anyone who has been a victim of theft on public transport, he/she is not Indian in the true sense. It just means you have always been rich enough to travel by private transport (while majority of the population rubs asses with each other on buses and trains) or are just plain lucky. In either case, majority of the population hates you.

Okay, so we assume everybody has had a brush with pinching of some or the other kind. So when your luggage was stolen in the train, and the authorities couldn’t care less, how did you feel? The thief was never caught, and the luggage never retrieved.

Ever since then you either spend extra on travel fares, or spend the night guarding your luggage and waking up with dark circles under your eyes. You can now take heart. The country’s top consumer court has ordered our dear old (and worn-out) Indian Railways to pay 2 lakh to a woman whose luggage was stolen in an AC coach.

The tragic tale:

Almost two decades ago (yeah, the judgment came that late not surprisingly) on the fateful night of Oct 10, 1996, Shobha Agarwal along with her daughter was travelling from Gorakhpur to Beena by the Kushinagar Express. In the dead of the night, two intruders entered the reserved compartment and sneaked away with Agarwal’s luggage.

This was despite the fact that the luggage was tied to a berth, and a ticket-checker was present in the 2^nd AC coach.

It was not just a loss of property for the mother-daugher duo but a mental trauma and scare too. If anti-social elements could gain access in reserved train compartments at night, they could do much more harm than just theft.

The judgment:

The IR has been booked for negligence by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

“Apparently, there was a failure on the part of the TTE to prevent entry of unauthorised persons in the coach during the night, the fora below were right in holding the railways liable for deficiency in service to Agarwal,” the national commission said of the state commission’s order awarding compensation,” said NCDRC Presiding Member Ajit Bharihoke.

The railways will pay Rs 1.5 lakh (and interest), Rs 50,000 for mental and physical trauma, and Rs 1000 for costs incurred by the aggrieved party.

Ray of hope: Though the judgment came a tad too late, it is a welcome statement in asserting the rights of the consumer. Bad service is not acceptable any more, is the message.

Bummer: IR has the power to challenge the judgment, though it really should just gracefully accept the fine and save some face.