KSRTC directed to pay compensation for failure in picking up passenger from designated stop

Bengaluru: A consumer court in Bengaluru has directed the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) to award Rs 1,000 compensation and refund the ticket fare to a passenger for failing to pick him up from the designated bus stop.

S. Sangameshwaran, 67, was supposed to board the Bengaluru-bound KSRTC Airavat Club Class bus from Tamil Nadu’sTiruvannamalai on October 13, 2019. Though he had arrived at the designated bus stop on time, he received an SMS containing the details of the trip and the contact number of the conductor.

Upon calling on that number, Sangameshwaran was told that the bus had already left Tiruvannamalai. Further, the bus conductor blamed him for turning up late. The elderly man had to take a bus to Hosur in Tamil Nadu and another bus to reach Bengaluru.

Sangameshwaran filed a complaint against the KSRTC Managing Director and General Manager with the Bengaluru Second Urban Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.

The KSRTC maintained that the complainant is not liable to receive compensation as per the law. It argued that the case should be dismissed as it happened in Tiruvannamalai which is beyond its jurisdiction.

It maintained that the complainant was sent an SMS about shifting of the bus stop. It also said as many as 23 passengers boarded the bus from the changed location.

As the KSRTC failed to produce any evidence to corroborate its arguments, the consumer court ordered the KSRTC to pay Rs 1,000 compensation to the passenger for the inconvenience caused to him. It also asked it to refund the Rs 497 as ticket fare and an additional amount of Rs 200, which he paid as fare in other buses to reach Bengaluru.