Five years after a woman was driven out of a railway coach because of Railways' fault of allotting same seat to two different ticket holders, the Delhi Consumer Commission has fined Northern Railways Rs 25,000 for its act.

Taking exception to the high-handedness of a ticket checker in forcing complainant Rani Sehgal to move out of the coach despite her having a confirmed ticket, the Commission's president Justice J D Kapoor held Northern Railways guilty of "grossest kind of deficiency in service".

"Due to the error on the part of the Railways two different tickets were allotted the same seat, which on the face of it is grossest kind of deficiency in service and negligence," the Commission said in a recent order.

Dismissing the appeal of the Railways against a district forum order, it observed that mental agony and harassment suffered by Sehgal, who had a confirmed ticket and might be going for some urgent purpose, was "immense" and entitled her for an adequate compensation.

Sehgal, a resident of Rana Pratap Bagh in New Delhi , was not only deprived of the seat but was also injured due to a fall in a scuffle with the ticket checker. She also suffered monetary loss after her purse was lost in the melee, the Commission noted while dismissing the Railway's argument that the damages were on the higher side.

According to the complaint, Sehgal was allotted a confirmed ticket for her journey from Jalandhar to New Delhi on October 10, 2002, but after boarding the train, she found somebody else occupying the seat with a ticket for the same
seat.

An altercation ensued between her and the ticket-checker and the complainant fell from the coach hurting herself. Sehgal also lost her purse and a gold chain in the incident, she had alleged.