Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday stayed the fine of Tk 2 lakh imposed by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) on the ticketing platform shohoz.com on charge of negligence in the process of selling tickets brought by a Dhaka University student.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir passed the order after hearing on a writ petition filed by shohoz.com.
It also issued a rule asking the concerned bodies of the government to explain as to why the decision taken by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection fining shohoz.com should not be declared illegal.
Commerce Secretary, Director General of the DNCRP, complainant Mohiuddin Rony, and
two other respondents have been asked to comply with the rule within two weeks.
Earlier on July 25, shohoz.com filed the writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the verdict delivered by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) fining Tk 2 lakh.
Barrister Tanjib Ul Alam appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the writ petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Bepul Bagmar represented the state.
Later Mr Tanjib Ul Alam told the reporters that the High Court has stayed the fine imposed by the DNCRP. So shohoz.com doesn’t need to pay the fine now, added the lawyer.
Mohiuddin Rony, a fourth-year student of the Theatre and Performance Studies Department of the University of Dhaka, has been holding a sit-in program in front of the ticket counters of the Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka since July 7, protesting the mismanagement of the railway department. He also gave a memorandum to the Director General of Bangladesh Railway regarding the issue.
On June 13, he tried to book train tickets of the Dhaka-Rajshahi section from the railway website. As per his claim, although the money was deducted from his mobile banking account, he did not get a ticket in the train. When he complained to the server room of Kamalapur Railway station that day, he was told that there was a ‘system failure’, and if he did not receive the money within 15 days, he was asked to go again.
He said that he complained about the matter twice to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection. But he was not called for hearing from there. In this circumstance he started a non-violent movement.
Finally the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection on July 20 held hearing on his allegation and fined ticketing platform shohoz.com Tk 2 lakh for its negligence in the process of selling tickets.
The fine was imposed after a hearing on the allegation of negligence brought by Mohiuddin Rony, said DNCRP Director General AHM Shafiquzzaman in a press briefing on that day.
Shohoz’s negligence has been proven in the hearing, said the DG. Shohoz will have to pay Tk 2 lakh within five working days, he added. Rony will get 25 percent (Tk 50,000) of the entire fine amount, the DG said.
