REFUND RULES

(i)Station Master to Refund Fares.

Every refund of fare under these rules shall be granted by the Station Master when a ticket is presented to him for such refund.

(A)Unused Ticket on which no Reservation has been made.

If a ticket on which no reservation of a seat or berth has been made is presented for cancellation within three hours after the actual departure of the train for which the ticket is issued or for any ticket valid for the whole day, within three hours after the actual departure of the last train of the day for the destination station, refund of fare shall be made on every such ticket after deducting Rs.10/- (Rupees 10/-) per ticket as clerkage.

(B)Unused Tickets on which Reservation has been made.

(1) subject to the provision of these rules, if a ticket on which reservation of a seat or berth has been made, is presented for cancellation, refund of fare shall be made after deducting cancellation charges from the fare as follows.

(a) If a ticket is presented for cancellation more than one day in advance of the scheduled departure of the train (excluding the day of journey), cancellation charge shall be deducted at a flat rate as under:-

Rs.50/- AC First class

Rs.30/- AC 2 Tier & 3 Tier

AC Chair Car/ First class

Rs.20/- Sleeper class

(b) If a ticket is presented or cancellation within one day in advace(excluding the day of journey) and upto four hours before the scheduled departures of the train, cancellation charge shall be 25 percent of the fare subject to the minimum flat rate mentioned in clause (a).

(c )If the ticket is presented for cancellation within four hours before the scheduled departure of the train and upto:-

(i) Three hours, when the ticket is for a destination station upto 200 kms.

(ii) Six hours, when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 200 kms but upto 500 kms. And

(iii) Twelve hours, when the ticket is for destination station of more than 500 kms.

After the actual departure of the train, cancellation charge shall be 50 percent of the fare subject to the minimum flat rate mentioned in clause(i).

( d) Provided that for Night trains leaving between 21.00hours and 06.00 hours(actual departure), refund shall be admissible at the station within the time limit specified above or within four hours after the opening of reservation office, whichever is later.

(e) No refund shall be granted at the station if the ticket is surrendered for cancellation after the expiry of the period mentioned under clause(iii) of such rule (1) except at some important stations where Station Superintendent/Dy .Station Supdt.(Commercial), Chief Reservation Supervisor are empowered to extend the limit prescribed for refund.

Explanation:- For the purpose of this rule fare includes reservation fee also.

( C ) Unused waiting list or RAC Ticket:-

(1) Subject to provisions of sub rule (2), no cancellation Charge shall be payable if a waitlisted or RAC ticket is presented for cancellation:-

(i) Upto three hours, when the ticket is for a destination station upto 200 kms.

(ii) Upto Six hours, when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 200 kms but upto 500 kms and

(iii) Upto twelve hours when the ticket is for a destination station of more than 500 kms.

After the actual departure of the train except for a deduction of a clerkage charge of Rs.10/- per passenger.

Provided that for night trains leaving between 21.00 hours and 06.00hours (actual departure), refund shall be admissible at the station within the time limit specified above or within the four hours after the opening of the reservation office, whichever is later.

(2)Where a confirmed reservation has been provided to RAC or waitlisted ticket holder:

At any time upto the final preparation of the reservation charts, such a ticket shall be treated as a reserved ticket and cancellation charge shall be payable in accordance with rule l (b).

Note:- In the case of tickets issued for travel from some other station, refund shall be admissible at the tikcet issuing station provided that the ticket is surrendered before the scheduled departure of the train from the station from where the ticket is valid.

(a) This rule shall also apply to RAC or waitlisted tickets provided that no cancellation charges shall be levied on RAC/Waitlisted tickets. A Clerkage charge of Rs. Ten per ticket will be deducted unless confirmed reservation has been provided upto final preparation of the chart.

When an unused ticket involving more than one journey is surrendered for cancellation, the entire ticket shall be treated as one single journey ticket and refund of the fare of the entire ticket, irrespective of reservation status of different laps of journeys, shall be granted as per reservation status of first lap of journey as under:-

(a) If reservation status of first lap of journey is confirmed, refund shall be granted in accordance with item 1(b)

(b) If reservation status of first lap of journey is RAC or waiting list, refund shall be granted in accordance with item 1(d).Explanation:- The cancellation charges or clerkage charges shall be levied only once on the entire amount of ticket and not separately for each lap of journey.

(4) Preponement or postponement of Journey on a Reserved/RAC/Waitlisted Tickets:-

(1) Postponement of journey on reserved/RAC or waitlisted tickets shall be allowed in the same class in any other train on the same day or any subsequent day if.

(i) The ticket is presented during the working hours of the reservation office and at least twenty four hours before the scheduled departure of the train in which reservation has been made, and

(ii) Accommodation is available in the train in which reservation is required.

(2) Preponement of journey on a reserved/RAC/Waitlisted ticket shall be allowed in the same class by any earlier train on the same day or any earlier day, if:-

(i) The ticket is surrendered during the working hours of reservation office and at least six hours before the scheduled departure of the train in which reservation is required and

(ii) accommodation is available in the train in which reservation is required.

Explanation:- In case there is difference of fares between the class of a train on which the ticket was originally reserved and the same class of the other train on which the postponement or preponement is provided, the change or reservation shall be made subject to refund or recovery of the difference, as case may be

(3)Preponement or postponement of journey under sub-rule (1) or sub-rule (2) shall be allowed only once, without levying any cancellation charges but on payment of:-

(i) fresh reservation fee, in the case of reserved ticket, and

(ii) clerkage in the case of RAC and waitlisted ticket.

(4) If the ticket on which the journey has been altered under sub-rule (1) or sub-rule(2) cancelled, cancellation charges shall be payable as follows:-

(i) Cancellation charge as may be due if the original reservation had been cancelled at the time when the postponement or preponement of reservation was allowed, and

(ii) Cancellation charge due in respect of the altered reservation as if this altered reservation is a fresh reservation.

( 5) Change of Journey from Lower Class to Higher Class.

(1) Change of reservation shall be allowed without levying any Cancellation charge, on a reserved ticket of lower class for higher class on the same train and day e.g when reserved for a seat in a class for reservation of a berth in the same class on the train and day provided that :-

(i) accommodation is available, and

(ii) The request for change is made:-

(a) either during the working hours of reservation office and upto six hours

hours before the scheduled departure of the train, or

(b) during the course of journey in the train.

(2)The change referred to under sub-rule shall be allowed only once.

(3) If the ticket at which the change of reservation has been allowed under

sub-rule (1) is cancelled, cancellation charge shall be payable as follows,

namely:-

(a) Cancellation charges as would have been due if the original reservation had been cancelled at the time when the change of reservation was allowed, and

(b) Cancellation charge due in respect of the altered reservation as if this altered reservation is a fresh

( 6) No Cancellation Charges Payable for non-commencement of journey due to late Running of Train

(1) No cancellation charge shall be payable on reserved tickets if the journey cannot be

undertaken due to late running of trains by more than three hours provided that such tickets are surrendered before the actual departure of the train (Reservation fee refundable).

(7) Cancellation of tickets where railway administration is unable to provide

Where a railway administration is not able to provide accommodation for any reason

whatsoever to passengers holding reserved tickets, no cancellation charge is payable

and refund of fare and reservation fee shall be granted.

(1) Provided that such tickets are surrendered for refund within 6 hours from the actual departure of the train.

(2) Provided further that when the train is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances such as accident, breaches or floods, the ticket is surrendered within 3 days excluding the scheduled day of the departure of the train.

(8) Partially used tickets

(1) Except as provided in these rules, no refund shall be granted at a station on a ticket

on which part of the journey has been undertaken.

(2) Where a passenger terminates the journey en route, a ticket deposit receipt shall be issued to the ticket holder by the Station Master of the station in lieu of surrender of the ticket and the ticket holder may apply to the Chief Commercial Manager (Refunds) of the TDR Ticket Depositing Receipt issuing railway enclosing the ticket deposit receipt in original for the refund of fare.

No refund shall be admissible for the partially used ticket on Rajdhani/Shatabdi Express trains.

Where a passenger holding a ticket, with or without reservation, misses connection at any junction station owing to late running of the train by which he had traveled, the fare for the untraveled portion shall be refunded without charging any cancellation fee at such junction station provided that he returns the ticket for such refund within three hours of the actual arrival of the train by which he has traveled.

(10) Discontinuation of Journey due to dislocation of train service.

(1) When a train journey is dislocated en-route due to unforeseen circumstances such as accidents, breaches and floods, fare and reservation fee for the entire booked journey without any deduction for the traveled portion and without levy of cancellation charge shall be refunded at the station at which the journey is terminated under the following circumstances:-

(a) When the railway is unable to carry of the passenger to the destination station within a reasonable time by arranging transhipment or diversion or otherwise or.

(b) When the passenger is involved in a railway accident and or injured in the accident and does not continue his journey, or

(c) In the case of death or injury to a passenger in a railway accident, the kith and kin of the passenger have to terminate the journey.

(2) Where the railway administration offers to carry the passenger to his destination station by

any diverted route or by arranging transhipment or otherwise, and the passenger is not willing to avail of such an alternative arrangement fare for the untraveled portion of the journey shall be refunded, without charging any cancellation charges at the station at which the journey has been terminated.

(3)Where the train journey is dislocated enroute due to bandhs, agitation or rail roko, fare for the untraveled portion only shall be refunded without the levy of cancellation charges.

(11) Failure of air-conditioning equipment.

Where the air-conditioning has not worked for a portion of journey, refund on tickets issued for air-conditioned coaches shall be granted for such portion on the following basis namely.

(a) If the ticket is for air-conditioned, first class the difference between the air-conditioned first class fare and first class fare.

(b) If the ticket is for 2 Tier or 3 Tier air-conditioned coach the difference between 2-tier/3 tier air-conditioned class fare including surcharge and sleeper class fare (Mail/Express).

(c) If the ticket is for air-conditioned chair car the difference between air-conditioned chair car fare and second class fare (Mail & Express).

Provided that refund of difference of fare under this rule shall be granted at the destination station on production of the ticket along with a certificate from the conductor or the guard or the travelling ticket examiner of the train giving particulars, namely ticket number, number of the coach and stations between which the air-conditioning had not worked, and is presented within twenty hours of the arrival of the train.

(12) When passengers are made to travel in Lower class for want of room.

If the ticket holder of higher class is made to travel in a lower class for want of room in the class for which the ticket was issued, refund of the difference between the fare paid and the payable for the class in which it is actually used shall be granted at the destination station or at the originating station, as the case may be.

Provided that refund shall be granted at destination station on production of a certificate from the conductor or the guard or the travelling ticket examiner of the train certifying that holder of the ticket had to travel in a lower class for want of room in the class for which it was issued and provided that the ticket is presented within twenty hours of the arrival of the train at the destination station.

(13) Grant of refund of fares on account of road blocked or cancellation of air flight.

Zonal Railway may consider grant of full refund of fares on reserved tickets less clerkage charge in case the road is blocked due to land slides on production of certificate from the Civil transport authorities to this effect and cancellation of air flights on production of a certificate from the Airlines. The ticket in such cases should be surrendered for cancellation at the originating station upto 48 hours after the scheduled departure of the train by which the passenger was booked. In case the passenger intends, to undertake journey on any other date in reserved/unresereved accommodation, they may be permitted to do so and the ticket revalidated accordingly without levying any cancellation charges.

At times, due to change in time table (scheduled or mid-term)departure time of certain trains are made earlier than the timings before. As a result, some passenger unaware of change in timings, miss the train. In such cases the passenger holding reserved waitlisted RAC tickets, who miss the concerned train due to this reason, may be granted full refund provided the refund is claimed after the departure of the train as per the revised earlier timings and upto three hours after the scheduled departure time as per the old timings. The refund will however be allowed after deducting clerkage or reservation fee, as the case may be. There will be no change in refund rules for the trains whose timings are put back to later than the timings before. This facility will be available only for a period of seven days including the date from which the train timings have been changed.

(15) Refund of Unused Return Journey Ticket:-

In case of return journey reserved tickets the station master of the station from which the journey has to commence is authorised to grant refund from the station earnings on verification of genuineness of the ticket from his record(Reservation messages etc). The station master of the station from which the journey has to commence are also authorised to re-validate such return tickets by alternative trains, leaving in that direction if so desired by the passenger.

(16) Surrender of Ticket for Refund.

It is clarified that the tickets can be surrendered for cancellation at any station on the Indian Railway. The refund in such cases will be settled by the headquarters office of the railway who have issued the Ticket Deposit Receipt(TDR). The cancelled tickets and the TDR should be sent by the Station Master Headquarter Office for settlement of refund.

While issuing the ticket deposit receipt at the time of cancelling the ticket a message should also be issued to the originating station from where the journey has to commence for cancelling the reservation. The refund in such case will be granted as per rule(1) of Cancellation of tickets and Refund of Fares Rules 1986.

(17)Refund on Lost/ Mutilated Tickets.

No refund is permissible on lost tickets. Please inform the Reservation Office immediately about the loss of your ticket. This will prevent the fraudulent refund of such tickets.

Charges for the issue of duplicate ticket before preparation of reservation chart will be as under:-

(a) 25% of total fare in case of ticket for journey upto 500 kms and 10% of total

are, in case of ticket for journey more than 500 kms (subject to a minimum

recovery of 25% of the total charges for the reserved ticket of 500 kms.)

(b) 25% of the total fare, irrespective of distance, for tickets of trains which have

separate all-inclusive fare structure on point-to- point basis, for e.g. Rajdhani,

Shatabdi Express.

Charges for issue of duplicate ticket after preparation of reservation chart.

(a) 50% total fare in the case of lost reserved tickets.

(b) No duplicate ticket will be issued in case of lost RAC tickets.

( c) 25% total fare, in case of mutilated reserved/RAC tickets.

( d) No duplicate ticket will be issued in case of lost/mutilated waitlisted tickets.

Refund on duplicate Tickets

If tickets are traced and presented alongwith the duplicate ticket before the departure of the train , you will be entitled to a refund of the amount paid for you duplicate ticket. However , 5% of the total amount will be deducted subject to a minimum of Rs. 20/- at the originating station.

The 10% or 25 % of fare collected or issuing duplicate ticket before preparation of reservation chart against Lost/ Misplaced reserved / RAC ticket shall be refundable from PRS terminal at destination station after completion of journey. Refund will be granted on verification that no one has taken refund on the concerned lost / misplaced ticket and after deducting usual clerkage charges per passenger. Refund shall be admissible on surrendering the duplicate ticket, during working hours or Reservation office and up to 3 days of arrival of the train.

(18) Refund on Party/family ticket having partial confirmed ticket:-

On a party /family ticket issued for more than one person when some persons have confirmed reservations and others are on waiting list, full refund less clerkage charges is admissible for confirmed passenger also provided that the entire ticket is surrendered for cancellation at the journey commencing station within 4 hours before the scheduled departure of the train and upto 3 hrs. after actual departure of the train.

When any person has purchased a ticket:-

When any person has purchased ticket, on any concessional order or privilege ticket order and is waitlisted for reservation in any train he shall be entitled to avail of the same ticket for reservation in any other train on the same date or in any other date without losing the benefit of concessional fare.

(1) No refund shall be granted on the unused portion of the concessional return tickets.

(2) When a return ticket is issued without any concession it shall be treated like two single journey tickets and the refund shall be granted accordingly.

(21) Refund of fare on unused tickets and freight realized on luggage tickets in respect of luggage booked on the same ticket in case journey is not undertaken.

(1) Refund of freight on luggage shall be granted by the station Master as under:-

(a) Luggage is withdrawn at starting station.

Luggage ticket shall be cancelled and freight already collected refunded after recovery of

wharfage charges, if any and deduction of cancellation charge of rupees ten per luggage

ticket.. Journey ticket shall be endorsed to the, effect.

(b) Luggage already dispatched from the starting station:-

Freight charges on weight admissible as free allowance shall be collected and remarks to

the effect endorsed on the journey ticket.

(2) On production of journey ticket on which luggage have been booked the fare shall be

refunded only if bearing the endorsement referred to in sub-rule(1) on the unsued ticket after

deducting the prescribed cancellation clerkage charges.

(22) Refund by station Master of a Station other than the Station which issued the ticket.

(1) Refund under these rules may be granted by the Station Master of the Station from where the journey is to commence on an unused ticket (reserved or RAC or waitlisted) issued from another station if the genuineness of the ticket is verified at the refund granting station through the computer or by reference to reservation charts or message from the ticket issuing station.

(2) Where the genuineness of ticket could not be verified under sub-rule(1) a ticket deposit receipt shall be issued to the ticket holder who may apply to the Chief Commercial Manager (Refunds) of the TDR issuing railway for refund.

(3) If the ticket holder is not in position to travel, he can surrender the ticket at the nearest railway station within prescribed time limit and obtain the ticket Deposit Receipt (TDR) Then the ticket holder may apply to the Chief Commercial Manager(Refunds) of the TDR issuing Railway for refund.

Application for refund in respect of other circumstances:-

Application for refund in respect of circumstances other than those prescribed in these rules or where the refund is not admissible at the station on account of expiry of time limit prescribed under the rule or other wise may be made to the chief commercial manager (Refund) of ticket deposit receipt issuing railways. In all such cases where refund is granted from Chief Commercial Manager (Refunds) Office, the passenger should apply for refund at the earliest and his application must reach Chief Commercial Manger (Refunds) office of the Ticket Deposit Receipt issuing Railway within 90 days, from the date of commencement of journey, for the purpose of counting 90 days, the date of journey shall be excluded. The application received after 90 days will not be entertained.