Indian Railways Ticket Cancellation: 5 Rules You Must Know

NDTV Profit Team

03 Jul 2018, 02:18 PM IST

Cancellation of tickets is permitted for PRS counter tickets in normal circumstances only.

Indian Railways offers the facility of both online and offline ticket cancellation. IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation), the online ticketing arm of Indian Railways allows online ticket cancellation. While passengers who book tickets from PRS (Passenger Reservation) counter, can cancel tickets offline from counters, said IRCTC on it's official website- irctc.co.in. However, cancellation of tickets and refund of fare is permitted for PRS counter tickets in normal circumstances only and not in case of late running of trains/cancellation of train etc, said IRCTC.

Here are few Indian Railways cancellation rules that you must know:

1. Online cancellation is permitted only up to 4 hours before the scheduled departure of the train if ticket is fully confirmed.

2. Online cancellation is only up to 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of the train if ticket is RAC (Reservation Against Cancellation)/waitlist.

3. For tickets cancelled offline (including return journey tickets) before 24 hours of scheduled train departure time, refund of fare permissible can be collected on submission of original PRS counter ticket from any PRS counter of Indian Railways up to 4 hours before the scheduled departure time of the train in case of confirmed tickets and up to thirty minutes before the scheduled departure time of train in case of RAC/waitlisted tickets.

4. For tickets cancelled (including return journey tickets) between 24 hours and up to 4 hours for the confirmed tickets and up to thirty minutes for RAC/waitlisted tickets before the scheduled departure time, refund of cancelled PRS counter tickets is permitted only at the journey commencing station or nearby satellite PRS locations by surrendering original journey ticket, as mentioned on IRCTC's website.

5. Once the passenger confirms, full cancellation of PNR (Passenger Name Record) is done and PNR is marked as cancelled. Seat/berth is released. Refund amount due is also be displayed to the passenger on website, said IRCTC.