The incident has an uncanny resemblance to a Hollywood scifi movie in which the protagonist is transported unknowingly to the future only to realise that he is lost in space and time.

The Railways had literally sent retired professor Vishnu Kant Shukla 1,000 years into the future when he booked a ticket for Kannauj from a railway reservation window in Saharanpur in 2013.

A clueless Shukla boarded the train only to be jolted by the ticket checker, who pointed out that instead of 2013, the year mentioned on the ticket was 3013.

According to Shukla, the TC asked him to cough up Rs 800 as fine. When the professor refused to pay the fine, he was evicted from the train mid-way.

Shukla-who is in his seventies-approached a consumer forum which has now directed the Railways to pay Rs 10,000 as a compensation for causing "mental and physical agony" to him.

During the hearing, the Railways argued that the passenger should have checked the date mentioned on ticket before boarding the train. The forum, which included chairman Lukman-ul-Haq and Sanat Kaushik, however, did not accept the argument.

The forum directed the Railways to pay the aggrieved passenger Rs 10,000 as compensation, Rs 3,000 as expenses as well the amount spent to buy the ticket along with some interest, according to Shukla.