BMTC: After 3 years of a long-running court battle, a passenger received its compensation of Rs 3000. According to reports, a bus conductor refused to give a Rs 1 change to him.
“It is the customer’s right to receive the balance due to him, even if it is Re 1,” a city consumer court observed while blasting the managing director of Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).
Ramesh Naik, a resident of Tumakuru, received his due return of Rs 1 and a compensation of Rs 3,000 after three years of proceedings for the ill-treatment by the bus conductor and her superiors at the corporation inflicted upon him.
BMTC case
On September 11, 2019, Naik boarded a BMTC Volvo bus travelling along Route 360B from Shantinagar bus depot to Majestic. The 37-year-old Naik gave the female bus conductor Rs 30 in addition to the Rs 29 fare.
As he requested the change (Rs 1), the situation took an odd turn as he saw the conductor get angry and his fellow passengers make fun of him for his legitimate request.
A consumer right
The courts also stated that the client has a right to collect his money, even if it is only Rs 1, and that, as a result, he is entitled, under the 1986 Consumer Protection Act, to receive just compensation from BMTC for the errors.
The court gave the MD of BMTC a 45-day window to refund Rs 1 to the bus passenger and Rs 2,000 in damages for the inconvenience.
The court also ordered that Naik be reimbursed Rs 1,000 for his legal fees. It said that a penalty would be assessed if the deadline wasn’t met.
