NEW DELHI: A district consumer commission in Punjab has directed Northern Railway to pay Rs 80,000 to a couple whose handbag, containing a gold mangalsutra and cash, was stolen during a journey on the Dibrugarh–New Delhi Rajdhani Express. In its June 30 order, the commission held the Railways guilty of deficiency in service.How the theft happened on the Rajdhani ExpressThe complainant, Kalu Ram, was travelling with his wife Suman Yadav and their child in a 3AC coach of the Rajdhani Express on December 14, 2021. The family had booked three seats, paying Rs 13,280 for the reservation, according to the court order.The couple alleged their handbag, kept near them, went missing when the train reached Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Railway Station. The bag held a 15-gram gold mangalsutra worth around Rs 65,000, cash of Rs 5,000, and Suman Yadav’s bank passbook. According to the complaint, the couple looked for the coach attendant right after discovering the theft but could not find one, and instead alerted an RPF official and the travelling ticket examiner (TTE) on board.After reaching New Delhi, they registered a Zero FIR. When repeated requests to the Railways for help yielded no result, the couple approached the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Pathankot, seeking Rs 70,000 for the stolen items plus Rs 5 lakh in damages for mental harassment.Northern Railway contested the complaint, arguing that the theft was never brought to the notice of the station master concerned, and cited a 2013 Supreme Court order in Vijay Kumar Jain v. Union of India, which held that the Railways cannot be held responsible for un-booked luggage.Why the consumer commission held Railways liableThe bench, comprising President Kulwinder Singh Pannu and Member Raj Kumar Shukla, found a contradiction in the Railways’ own evidence. Records submitted by the Railways themselves showed that an RPF escort team, led by a Head Constable, had in fact attended to the couple during the journey after receiving their complaint — undercutting the Railways’ claim that no information about the theft was available to the administration.“Once, the railway admits that its RPF Escort received the complaint it cannot simultaneously contend that no information was available with the railway administration. It is further clear that the complainants lodged a FIR (Zero FIR) at the destination which is exhibited as Ex. C-3. It is also an admitted position that the incident occurred in a reserved 3 AC coach,” the commission held.The commission also pointed out that the Railways never disputed the couple’s claim that no coach attendant was present when the theft occurred, and failed to produce the attendant’s duty roster or any other record to show staff were actually on duty at the time.“The opposite parties have never rebutted the absence of coach attendant and neither produced the duty roaster of the coach attendant to establish that the coach attendant was present at that time and performing his duties. The opposite parties withhold the best available evidence available only with them giving an adverse inference,” the commission added.Taking all these points together — the couple’s prompt report to the RPF, the Railways’ contradictory statements, the absence of a coach attendant, and the Railways’ failure to produce duty records — the commission held the Railways liable for deficiency in service.The commission partly allowed the complaint. It ordered Northern Railway to pay Rs 70,000 for the stolen items, along with 6 per cent yearly interest counted from the date the case was filed until the money is actually paid. It further ordered an extra Rs 10,000 for the mental harassment the couple faced, bringing the total to Rs 80,000.The order also said that if the Railways don’t pay within one month of getting a copy of the order, they will have to pay a higher interest rate of 12 per cent per year on the full amount, counted from the date the case was filed.
