In case of theft of personal belongings of a passenger while traveling in a train, compensation for the stolen goods cannot be obtained from the Railways The Supreme Court has said that if a passenger does not know how to protect his luggage himself and his luggage is stolen, it cannot be considered deficiency in service by the Railways. Railways cannot be held liable for theft of passenger's luggage .Deficiency in service cannot be claimed as compensation for stolen goods from Railways. A division bench of the Supreme Court has made this observation in a case in which the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission ordered the Railways to reimburse the stolen cash of the passenger. According to the case, a person named Surendra Bhola was going to Delhi by Kashi Vishwanath Express. He had ₹100000 in cash which he kept in his waist belt.. Surendra Bhola's cash was stolen while traveling in a train He filed a claim in the District Consumer Forum seeking reimbursement of the stolen amount from the Railways stating that the theft of cash was due to deficiency in the service of the Railways. The District Consumer Forum, while disposing of the claim, ordered the Railways to reimburse the stolen amount to the passenger.District Consumer Forum asks Railways to return ₹100000 stolen during journey to passenger. This decision of the District Consumer Forum was upheld by the State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission and the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission during the appeal.Thereafter, the Railways moved the Supreme Court against this order. ,While hearing the matter, a division bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said that We fail to understand how theft of passenger's luggage can be termed as deficiency in service by Railways. Railways cannot be held responsible if the passenger is not careful in safeguarding his baggage. Bench sets aside consumer court order holding that theft of personal belongings of passenger does not amount to deficiency in service by Railways. It is clear from the decision of the Supreme Court that if the personal belongings of the passenger are stolen during the journey in the train, then the Railways cannot be held responsible for this. Reimbursement of luggage stolen during journey cannot be claimed from Railways.
