NEW DELHI, Sep 9 : The Supreme Court has held that the railways will have to cough up and pay passengers compensation for deficiency of service for late running of trains if they cannot establish or prove that the delay occurred due to reasons beyond its control.

“These are the days of competition and accountability. If the public transportation has to survive and compete with private players, they have to improve the system and their working culture. Citizens/passengers cannot be at the mercy of the authorities/administration. Somebody has to accept the responsibility,” a Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Aniruddha Bose observed in an order on Tuesday. 

The court upheld the compensation awarded to a passenger whose train was delayed by four hours while travelling to Jammu with his family in 2016. They missed their flight and had to take an expensive taxi to Srinagar. They also lost their booking of a boat on Dal Lake. 

The District Consumer Forum put it down as deficiency in service by the railways. The forum ordered the North Western Railway to pay the disgruntled passenger ?15,000 for taxi expenses, ?10,000 towards booking expenses, along with ?5,000 each towards mental agony and litigation expenses.