Vinay Sundar, Intern

New Suvidha trains were introduced to replace premium trains. The most striking change is the scrapping of the waiting list, a first for a train in the IRCTC. This means that only confirmed and Reservation against Cancellation (RAC) tickets will be issued for these trains. Ticket cancellation can be done up to 6 hours before the commencement of the train journey. In that case, 50% of the fare will be refunded to the buyer’s account. If the train itself is canceled, however, the ticket price will be refunded wholly.

A little while back, CAG received a complaint from an individual complaining that he signed up at an online job listing service, more commonly known as a job portal. This job portal concealed information from the complainant, which he only found out after signing the registration form and paying the amount. This type of complaints have become common and we have observed a spike in complaints regarding job portals, which can be attributed to the increased use of these websites.

An amendment to the Consumer Protection Act,  2003, re-classified the individuals who could classify as a consumer, by leaving outside the Act’s purview those individuals purchasing a product for resale or commercial purposes. The explanation in the Act itself reads ,”for the purpose of this clause "commercial purpose" does not include use by any person of goods bought and used by him and services availed by him exclusively for the purpose of earning his livelihood by means of self-employment”