Railways ordered to pay Rs 35,000 to passenger as train delayed by more than 8 hours

NEW DELHI: A district consumer commission in Jharkhand has the Railways to pay Rs 30,000 compensation to a passenger who faced a 8 hours and 48 minutes delay while travelling from Tatanagar to Sambalpur. The commission also awarded Rs 5,000 as litigation costs, holding that the Railways failed to show that the delay was beyond its control. The order was passed on September 2, 2026.Why did the passenger approach the consumer commission?According to the commission order, Sanjay Kumar had booked two sleeper-class tickets on the Ispat Express for travel from Tatanagar to Sambalpur on September 23, 2024. The train was scheduled to leave Tatanagar at 10.18 am and reach Sambalpur at 3.50 pm.The train departed late and reached Sambalpur 528 minutes (8 hours and 48 minutes) behind schedule. Kumar claimed Rs 4.5 lakh compensation for the physical, mental and financial harassment he said he suffered because of the delay.