Abhi Bus leaves passengers stranded in Ayodhya: Wrong pickup instructions sent couple 10 km away to find booked bus missing; ordered Rs 30,000 payout

A Kerala consumer commission has ordered Abhi Bus Service India and its partner operator to refund a couple's ticket fare and pay Rs 30,000 payout after they were left stranded in Ayodhya following wrong pickup instructions, a frantic 10-kilometre auto ride to a second location, and the discovery that their booked bus was not even operating at that hour.

The order was passed on 27 July 2026 by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Kannur, and both operators were held jointly and severally liable.

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What the couple was promised

M.C. Presannakumar, a lawyer with 45 years of experience, booked two tickets on 9 April 2025 through Abhi Bus Service India's online portal for a journey from Ayodhya to Prayagraj the following day. The fare of Rs 1,589 was paid via Google Pay. The ticket clearly stated a pickup time of 1:30 PM from Saket Petrol Bunk, near Soorya Bus Stand, Ayodhya, with an instruction to arrive 10 minutes early. Seats 11 and 12 were allotted.

What followed bore no resemblance to any of that.

Standing on the road in Ayodhya

On 10 April 2025, the couple reached the Saket Petrol Bunk at around 1 PM, confirming the location by asking nearby street vendors. Some vendors raised doubts about whether any bus was expected there at that time, but when Presannakumar called the operator's helpline, he was told the bus would arrive and asked to wait.

By 1:35 PM, there was still no bus. He called again. This time, the response stunned him. The staff asked why he was standing at the petrol bunk and told him he was supposed to be at a chaurahe, a junction on the National Highway, approximately 10 kilometres away.

With no time to bargain, the couple hired an auto and paid Rs 300 to rush to the new location. What they found there made the situation worse. Several buses were parked at the junction picking up passengers, but their booked bus was nowhere in sight. They were then told the bus they had booked did not operate during the afternoon at all. It only ran at 7:30 PM.

The couple had been standing on a road in Ayodhya for over 20 minutes on wrong instructions, chased an auto across 10 kilometres on a second set of wrong instructions, and arrived at a location where their bus simply did not exist at that hour.

Why this was not just an inconvenience

Presannakumar's wife Mini was not in good health. She had recently undergone surgery for varicose veins and had been specifically advised by her doctors not to stand still for extended periods. The ordeal of standing on the roadside, rushing across the city in an auto, and waiting at a bus junction in the afternoon heat was, as the commission noted, a direct physical endurance test for someone in post-surgical recovery.

Presannakumar sent a legal notice to both operators on 26 April 2025. Neither responded. When the complaint came before the commission, both Abhi Bus Service India and its partner operator Vijay Travels, Surat, failed to appear and were declared ex-parte, meaning the commission decided the matter based entirely on the evidence placed by the complainant.

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What the commission found and ordered

The commission examined the ticket printout, the chat records with Abhi Bus's officials, the Google Pay receipt, the lawyer notice, and the postal receipts showing the notices were returned unacknowledged. The evidence was clear and unrebutted.

The commission held both operators jointly and severally liable for deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, observing that after collecting the fare, the operators failed entirely to provide the service they had contracted to deliver.

Abhi Bus Service India and Vijay Travels were directed to refund Rs 1,589 as ticket fare, pay Rs 20,000 as compensation for mental agony, and pay Rs 10,000 as litigation costs, totalling Rs 31,589. The order carries a 30-day compliance deadline. If the operators fail to pay within that window, the principal amount of Rs 21,589 will attract interest at 9 per cent per annum from the date of the order until full realisation.

Check the case judgement here: