NEW DELHI: A district consumer commission in Himachal Pradesh has held RedBus and a bus operator jointly responsible for cancelling a passenger’s confirmed ticket just 17 minutes before departure, leaving him stranded late at night and forcing him to book an emergency flight to Delhi. The commission, in its July 4th order, ruled that online booking platforms cannot escape responsibility by simply calling themselves an intermediary once they have accepted payment and confirmed a booking.
What led to the consumer complaint
The complainant, Jayant Patial, booked a bus ticket from Palampur to Delhi through RedBus on October 5, 2023, paying Rs 600 for it. The bus was scheduled to leave at 10:15 pm, and Patial reached the boarding point 20 to 30 minutes early, as noted in the order.When he contacted the bus operator, Bharmani Travels, he was told that no bus was scheduled to leave at that hour and that their last bus for the day had already left at 8 pm.After which, he immediately contacted the RedBus customer support and was assured of help, but at 9:58 pm — just 17 minutes before the scheduled departure — he received a message saying his booking had been cancelled and the refund has been initiated.But since he had to reach Delhi urgently, he travelled about 40 km to the nearest airport and booked an expensive last-minute flight for the next morning. He then approached the consumer commission, seeking compensation for his financial losses, mental harassment, and litigation costs.However, RedBus argued that it was just an online platform connecting passengers to bus operators, had no control over actual schedules, and that all information about buses was uploaded by the operators themselves.It also said that it had already refunded Rs 585 to Patial’s bank account and Rs 60 to his RedBus wallet, and had even offered to pay him twice the ticket fare as a goodwill gesture, but which Patial refused to accept and instead asked for at least Rs 10,000.Bharmani Travels did not appear before the commission at all and was proceeded against ex-parte.
Why the commission held RedBus liable
The bench comprising president, Hemanshu Mishra, and members Arti Sood and Narayan Thakur did not accept RedBus’s argument that it was just a middleman connecting the passenger to the bus company and said that an online platform cannot avoid responsibility once it has taken money, charged fees, and confirmed a booking, even if the service it promised did not actually exist.“By listing non-existent services, opposite party number 1 failed to conduct due diligence, which amounts to a clear deficiency in service and unfair trade practice,” the commission said.On the cancellation itself, the commission noted that “cancelling a confirmed ticket just seventeen minutes before the scheduled departure time reflects gross negligence on the part of the opposite parties.”Since Bharmani Travels never came forward to explain what went wrong, the commission said there was nothing to counter the passenger’s claims against it. It held that the company had clearly failed to provide proper service.The commission concluded that RedBus had failed to ensure the reliability of the service it listed, while Bharmani Travels had failed to run the bus as scheduled — and held both companies jointly and severally liable for the harassment and loss caused to Patial.“Both opposite parties have directly contributed to the harassment, financial loss, and acute grievance caused to the consumer. Opposite party number 1 failed to ensure the reliability of the service listed on its commercial portal, while opposite party number 2 failed to operate the vehicle as scheduled. Therefore, both opposite party number 1 and opposite party number 2 are held jointly and severally liable to compensate the consumer,” the commission further added.The commission then ordered RedBus and Bharmani Travels to pay Rs 5,000 for mental agony and harassment, along with Rs 5,000 towards litigation expenses — a total of Rs 10,000, on top of the refund Patial had already received. The amount must be paid within 30 days, failing which it will carry 9 per cent annual interest from the date the complaint was filed until it is actually paid.
