- Shiritan Mulan
- BBC News – Bombay
6 hours ago
Chaturvedi said that with his behavior he wanted to inspire the oppressed
22 years following the accident, an Indian man has won a court battle over overpaying for two train tickets.
Attorney Tungnath Chaturvedi had overpaid 20 Indian rupees (regarding a quarter of a US dollar) over the actual price of two train tickets he bought in 1999.
The accident took place at Mathura railway station in Uttar Pradesh, northern India.
A consumer court ruled in his favor last week and demanded the rail company return a quarter of the dollar to Chaturvedi, plus interest.
“I have attended more than 100 court sessions. The energy and time I have wasted on this case cannot be appreciated,” Chaturvedi, 66, told the BBC.
Consumer courts in India hear complaints regarding services, and they are known to hear a lot of cases, so it may take years to resolve a case, even minor cases.
Chaturvedi, who lives in Uttar Pradesh, was traveling from Mathura to Moradabad when an employee made him pay more than two tickets he had bought.
The cost of one ticket was 35 INR, but when he gave the employee 100 INR, he returned 10 INR, and charged 90 INR for the two tickets.
He told the employee that he deducted too much from him, but he did not get his money, so he decided to file a case once morest the railway company in the area and the employee concerned, and said that the case took years.
He explained that some cases take time because of the judges’ leave, and that the railway company rejected his complaint, saying that railway-related cases should be heard in railway courts, not in consumer court.
But it relied on a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2021, in order to establish the eligibility of the consumer court to hear the case.
After protracted battles, the ruling came to oblige the railway corporation to pay a fine of 188 US dollars and pay 20 rupees to the complainant, and interest at the rate of 12 percent per year from 1999 to 2022. In the event that compensation is not paid to the complainant within a month from the issuance of the judgment, the interest rate will be raised to 15 in cent.
Chaturvedi said the compensation he received was not rewarding for his anxiety and stress. The family had tried to dissuade him from pursuing the case, describing it as a waste of time, but he insisted on his position.
He said, “Money is not the issue, but justice and the fight once morest corruption, so it is worth it. Likewise, he took up the case himself as a lawyer, and did not incur the expenses of a lawyer.”
Chaturvedi said he believes his cause will inspire others not to give up their rights even if they have struggled for an extended period of time.
