The High Court on Sunday stayed payment of Tk 2 lakh fine that was imposed by the Directorate of National Consumer Right Protection to Bangladesh Railway e-ticket partner Shohoz.com for refusing to issue train tickets to Dhaka University student Mohiuddin Roni despite taking payment.
A bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir granted the stay after hearing a writ petition filed by Shohoz.com challenging the legality of the Directorate of National Consumer Right Protection’s July 20’s decision of imposing the fine for Shohoz’s alleged negligence in ticket sales.
The court also asked commerce ministry’s secretary, the director-general of the directorate, Mohiuddin Roni, to explain in two weeks why the decision of imposing financial penalty over the e-ticket disbursement should not be declared as illegal.
The directorate asked Shohoz to pay the fine of Tk 2 lakh within five working days and Rony would get Tk 50,000 of it.
Allegation had it that Mohuddin was denied four tickets, citing technical glitch, for which he made online payment.
But he later found that his blocked tickets were sold by the Kamalapur counter to standing ticket seekers, and the tickets were overpriced.
Mohiuddin, a fourth-year student of the department of theatre and performance studies at Dhaka University, had been protesting at the Kamalapur Railway Station since July 7, demanding an end to mismanagement and corruption at the Bangladesh Railway.
