The Indian Railways reserves seat seats, berths, compartments, or carriage in accordance with the rules and conditions published in the Coaching Tariff. A passenger seeking reservation of berth or seats should purchase tickets from the Railway Reservation Offices/Authorised Travel Agency only. Generally, advance reservations are made up to 120 days in advance for all classes and all trains. Not only station windows or authorised travel agency can help you avail reserved train tickets, but also the railways catering service provider IRCTC has recently revamped its online portal for making it easier and hassle free for passengers in booking their ticket. However, there can be an occasion where last minute change in plan do occur, which leaves no option but to cancel tickets. 

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The railways do allow train ticket cancellation and refund of the amount on various portal. However, not many are aware of cancellation and refund procedure on train e-ticket booking. 

A passenger can cancel e-ticket reservation only through IRCTC eTicketing website. 

For cancelling the tickets, one must  log on to www.irctc.co.in and go to My Account=>My Transactions=>Booked ticket History link and select the ticket to be cancelled and then initiate the cancellation by selecting the passengers to be cancelled. 

According to IRCTC website, cancellation would be confirmed online and the refund would be credited back to the account used for booking as for normal Internet tickets. If there is any partial cancellation of ticket please ensure that the modified ticket (Electronic Reservation Slip) is printed separately as for the original ticket. All cancellation and refunds are processed as per extant Railway Rules.

If you are cancelling your ticket, then you should be aware of 5 refund rules of Indian Railways. 

1. If a passenger cancels tickets which are unreserved, waitlisted and RAC - then charges of Rs 30 (unserved second class) and Rs 60 (second and other classes) are levied. 

2. If your ticket falls under reserved category then following charges are applicable:

A. If cancelled 48 before the scheduled departure of the train - then Rs 240 on 1st AC/executives class, Rs 200 on 2nd AC class, Rs 180 on 3AC/ACC/3A economy class, Rs 120 on second sleeper class and Rs 60 on second class is charged. 

B. If the ticket is cancelled between 48 hours and 12 hours before the scheduled train departure, then the passenger will pay 25% extra on the above mentioned charges. 

C.  If the ticket is cancelled between 12 hours and 4 hours before the scheduled train departure, then the amount of the above charges will be 50% higher. 

D. No refund will be given if your reserved ticket is cancelled after after 4 hours left for scheduled train departure. 

3. Refund is allowed on partially confirmed ticket as well. However, the cancellation process is available up to half an hour left for the scheduled train departure. 

4. Refund on unused RAC/WL tickets: Upto half an hour before the scheduled departure of the train subject to deduction of clerkage charge. No refund after the above prescribed time limit.

5. In case of cancellation of trains for e tickets: Automatic refund is granted. Filing of TDR is not required. No change for counter PRS ticket.