Most people shrug off a deduction of a few rupees and let the matter end there. A passenger from Punjab did the opposite. He treated a missing Rs 5 seriously enough to carry the fight all the way to a consumer commission, and it paid off. The commission ordered the Railways not just to return that Rs 5, but to hand him another Rs 10,000 on top.
Where it all began
Premjit Singh, a 41-year-old resident of Ludhiana, had booked two train tickets in February 2023, one for himself and one for his father, for a journey from Hisar to Ludhiana. He bought them at the railway station counter, paying a total of Rs 330 with his debit card. A day before the trip, personal reasons forced a change of plans, and both tickets were cancelled. As per the rules, the Railways deducted Rs 240 as a cancellation charge, leaving Rs 90 to be refunded.
A discrepancy spotted a year later
It was roughly a year later, while going through his bank account statement, that Premjit Singh noticed something was off. Instead of Rs 90, only Rs 85 had been credited, meaning an extra Rs 5 had quietly been shaved off the refund he was owed. He first reached out to the railway helpline, then went to the station in person and even produced his ticket and bank statement. Despite all this, no one gave him a clear explanation of why those Rs 5 had been taken.
No answer, so the legal route
With no satisfactory response from railway staff, Premjit Singh sent a legal notice and later filed a formal complaint with the District Consumer Commission. His demand was simple, a refund of Rs 5, and his argument was that any deduction made without informing the customer violates consumer rights. During the hearing, the Railways argued that the Rs 5 had not been taken by them but by their bank, State Bank of India.
Falling back on a 2017 notification
In its defence, the Railways pointed to a 2017 notification issued by the Railway Board. Under it, when a refund is processed through a POS machine and the amount is up to Rs 1,000, the bank may levy a ‘refund charge’ of Rs 5. The commission accepted that the deduction had indeed been made under this provision, but it was equally firm that such a charge ought to have been disclosed to passengers clearly and in advance.
Withholding information cost the Railways dearly
The commission found that the Railways could not prove that any information about this charge had been displayed clearly at the ticket counter. Worse still, even after the complaint was lodged, the passenger was never told the real reason for the deduction. The commission also remarked that railway officials themselves did not fully understand the arrangement, and that the relevant notification was produced only in the final stage of the hearing. Taken together, the commission treated all of this as unfair treatment of the consumer and an ‘unfair trade practice’.
Rs 5 plus a Rs 10,000 burden
The bench of District Consumer Commission President Sanjeev Batra and member Monika Bhagat ruled in favour of Premjit Singh. It directed the Railways to return the Rs 5 along with a consolidated cost of Rs 10,000. The bench made it clear that the entire amount must be paid within 30 days. Should the Railways fail to pay within that window, it would have to cough up an additional penalty of Rs 200 for every day of delay. The verdict sends a plain message, that ignoring consumer rights, no matter how small the sum involved, can prove expensive for institutions.
