- An Indian lawyer was overcharged by 20 rupees ($0.25) for two train tickets he bought in 1999.
- He took the railways and ticketing clerk to court. The legal battle dragged on for 22 years.
- Last week, per BBC News, the railways were finally ordered to refund him and pay a fine of 15,000 rupees ($188).
Tungnath Chaturvedi, an Indian lawyer, was overcharged by 20 rupees ($0.25) for two train tickets he bought in 1999.
Last week, after a 22-year court battle against the North Eastern Railway (a division of Indian Railways), Chaturvedi was finally told he'd be getting his refund.
"I have attended more than 100 hearings in connection with this case," Chaturvedi, 66, told BBC News. "But you can't put a price on the energy and time I've lost fighting this case."
In 1999, Chaturvedi visited a ticket clerk to buy two train tickets from Mathura to Moradabad — both in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
The tickets cost 35 rupees each ($0.44), but when he gave 100 rupees ($1.26) to the clerk, Chaturvedi only received 10 rupees ($0.13) in change.
BBC News reported that Chaturvedi told the clerk that he was overcharged by 20 rupees ($0.25), but was refused a refund. Short-changed and angry, he decided to sue the railways and the clerk in an Indian consumer court.
The legal battle dragged on partly because the railways tried to move the case from a consumer court to a railway tribunal. "But we used a 2021 Supreme Court ruling to prove that the matter could be heard in a consumer court," Chaturvedi told BBC News.
He added that delays were also the result of judges being on vacation or other types of leave.
Chaturvedi made more than 100 court appearances between 1999 and 2022, and his family urged him several times to give it up, describing the decades-long fight as a waste of time, per BBC News.
But nevertheless, he persisted. "It's not the money that matters. This was always about a fight for justice and a fight against corruption," Chaturvedi told BBC News.
After the epic legal battle, the railways were last week ordered to refund Chaturvedi. He will receive 20 rupees at 12% interest per year. If the money is not paid out within 30 days, the interest rate will be raised to 15% per annum, according to the Indian newspaper The Print.
The railways must also pay him a fine of 15,000 rupees ($188), The Print said.
Chaturvedi told BBC News that he hopes the case would inspire others not to give up "when the fight looks tough."