Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation [IRCTC] — Wrong rejection of TDR against PNR nos. [protected] & [protected] with reason Train diverted and not touching boarding station

Subject: Refund of fare for PNR nos. [protected] & [protected]

Reference: Ticket Id nos. – 17088041 dated Oct 15, 2023; 17170764 dated October 23, 2023; 17235300 & 17434166 dated Nov 18, 2023

Dear sir,
The issue is concerning refund of full fare for PNR nos. [protected] & [protected] on DOJ Oct 10, 2023 from boarding station Varanasi (BSB) to Gaya; by train no. 13010 scheduled to start on Oct 09, 2023 at 20:55 hrs from the source station Rishikesh (YNRK). Since train 13010 was diverted between Ayodhya and Asansol (during Sept 18 – Oct 15, 2023 which included our DOJ Oct 10, 2023) and not touching boarding station on the DOJ as well as destination station, the TDRs were filed on Oct 10, 2023 as per rules for both PNRs with reason “train diverted and train not touching boarding station”. However, both the TDRs were rejected giving the reason – “Invalid TDR Timestmap : TRAIN CANCEL”. Refer Annexures – 1, 1a, 2 & 2a.

1. PNR status enquiry checked on Sep 20, 2023 on the webpage of indianrail.gov.in clearly mentioned, “This halt has been deleted from the train route”. Refer Annexure – 3 & 4.
2. Two messages were sent by IRSMSA on the DOJ Oct 10, 2023, which mentioned status of our PNRs as “Charting Done”. This confirmed that train was not cancelled. The details under tab of “Booked Tickets” on the webpage of IRCTC also mentioned charting status of these PNRs as “Chart prepared”. Refer Annexure – 5, 6 & 7.
3. Further, the running history shown in graphics (as available on the database of Indian Railways) proves that train 13010 was running on diverted route between Ayodhya and Asansol and neither touching the boarding station Varanasi BSB nor the destination station Gaya during Sept 18 – Oct 15, 2023, which included the DOJ Oct 10, 2023 for our PNRs. Refer Annexures - 8 & 9.
4. The detailed running history of train 13010 (extracted from the App of Indian Railways website) mentioned that train departed from the source station Rishikesh YNRK on Oct 09, 2023 at 22:19 hrs (instead of scheduled 20:55 hrs i.e. with a delay of 1h 24m). The running history also mentioned on the top banner that train 13010 was diverted between Ayodhya and Asansol and not touching Varanasi BSB the boarding station on the DOJ Oct 10, 2023 as well as the destination station Gaya. Refer Annexures - 10 through 26.
5. As clarified above at para 2, from the two messages sent by IRSMSA on Oct 10, 2023 as well as from the webpage of IRCTC under the Tab of “Booked Tickets of Past Journey” confirming the final status of both the PNRs as “charting done”, it is adequately proved that the train 13010 was not cancelled. Had the train 13010 been cancelled then IRSMSA would have sent the message about cancellation of train in advance. In fact, no message was sent by IRSMSA about train cancellation. Since, the train 13010 was not cancelled but was running on diverted route (as per running history available on website of Indian Railways) and neither touching boarding station nor touching destination, therefore, TDRs for both the PNRs were filed with the correct reason “Train diverted and not touching boarding station”. Hence, TDRs were rejected wrongly. Even if it could be established by the Indian Railways with the documentary proof from its database that train 13010 was cancelled (in which our journey vide both the PNRs was booked and confirmed on the DOJ Oct 10, 2023 from the boarding station Varanasi BSB) then also the full fare should have been refunded back automatically as per rules.
I need help to resolve the issue of full refund.
Regards