Although we do have plenty of websites from where you can make your railway reservation but in certain cases like booking tickets in bulk (ex. for marriage purpose) or to book a ticket in a special train (summer train / student train) we need to visit one of the nearest railway reservation counter and make your reservation done.
For this you need to fill a Requisition/Cancellation Form (check the image with the post), this Requisition form is freely available all across the reservation counters you just need to fill and submit it to the booking clerk. The same form can be used to cancel any ticket which you have booked through reservation counter, contrarily you cannot use this form to cancel eticket which you have booked online.

Now let’s get started to fill Requisition/Cancellation Form -

1. RAILWAYS – The First line of the form ask for Railways – there are 17 regional railways zones in India. You can leave this section blank.

2. If you are a Medical Practitioner – please check the check-box, reason is in case of emergency while journey you can be contacted for help. None other than ‘Allopathic’ Doctor carrying a copy of the registration certificate issued by the Indian Medical Council, get 10% discount on the fare.

3. If you are Senior Citizen – concession write YES, all the adults aged 60 and above get a 30% reduction in basic fare on all Mail,Express,Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains (no discount on reservation charge, superfast charge, safety charge).
Please carry a proof of age (voter id card, passport,PAN card, Driving License) during the journey to avoid inconvenience of penal charging under extant Railway rules. Leave it empty if it doesn’t apply to you. The ONLY concession extended to foreigners.

4. Train Number and Train Name – Pay extra bit of attention while filling this section , jot down the train number and train name for example write New Delhi Howrah Rajdhani – 2302.
It’s only the train number that is used by the the reservation clerk while making reservation the train name is just to cross verify your mistake.
Get the list of trains plying between major stations here.

5. Date of Journey – Use mm/dd/yyyy format to avoid any kind of confusion example 21/01/2010. Now comes the tricky part if you’re boarding a train that departs after midnight, the date to be filled is following day example if today is Monday and you will board a train that leaves after midnight you will fill Tuesday’s date as the date of journey.

6. Class – Following is the list of classes in Indian Railways along with their code.

a. First class Air-Conditioned (AC) (Code:1A). The Executive class in Shatabdi type trains is also treated as Ist AC.
b. AC 2-tier sleeper (Code:2A)
c. First class (Code:FC)
d. AC 3 Tier (Code:3A)
e. 3 E – AC 3 Tier Economy
f. AC chair Car (Code:CC)
g. Sleeper Class (Code:SL)
h. Second Sitting (Code:2S)

ACCOMMODATION TYPES : Berths, Seats,Chair car

7. Number of Birth/Seats – This infers the number of people travelling,maximum 6 in one Requisition/Cancellation Form, if the passengers are more in number fill multiple forms.

Note- Children below the age of 5 are not to be added to this section.

8. Station from/ to AND Boarding at / Reservation up to – ‘Break of Journey‘ rule makes is slightly confusing.
If you are doing a straight forward journey viz Delhi to Mumbai, fill Station from – Delhi ,Station to – Mumbai, Boarding at – Delhi , Reservation up to – Mumbai. Pretty simple isn’t it.
If you are doing a break Journey use Station from/ to – to book your ticket (like Delhi to Mumbai) and Boarding at / Reservation up to – to book your reservation.( like Delhi to Nagpur assuming you have a break journey at Nagpur)

9. Name – Fill the names of the passengers preferably in capital letters to avoid misspell names.

10. Sex – Write a M or an F.

Note – Female passengers travelling alone may ask for ladies quota,(available on certain trains).This special quota is usually a compartment 6 in Sleeper class it
simply ensures that your co-passengers are ladies.

11. Age – Fill up your age, if you are male of 60 years old or above, or female of 45 years old or above,are automatically given lower berths (subject to availability) even if they have not requested them.

12. Concessions/Travel Authority No – Applicable only for Circular Journey Ticket or an Indrail Pass.

13. Choice if any – While booking for tickets you can ask for preferred births, choices of seats/berths are subject to availability, the earlier you book the more chance you have of getting your preferred choice.

LB = Lower Berth
MB = Middle Berth
UB = Upper Berth
SLB = Side Lower Berth
SUB = Side Upper Berth

Additionally you can also make choice between Veg and non-veg food if you are travelling with Shatabdi or Rajdhani.

14. Children below 5 years (for whom a ticket is not to be issued) – There is no charge for children’s below 5 years of age, but there details should be added to this section of the reservation form.
No seat/berth is provided for children below 5 years of age.
Note – If your child is below 5, carry something that would prove their age.

15. Onward/Return Journey Details – This section can be used to book a train onwards, that is after reaching your destination you want to travel on some other train. Alternatively you can use this section to book the return tickets.

16. Name of applicant – Write the name of the person who will be holding the ticket on the train, NOT the name of who may be buying the tickets on your behalf.

17. Full Address - To stop touts booking loads of reservations write down your original address, sometimes officials check the validity of the passengers randomly.

18. Telephone Number /Date / Time – date you are submitting the reservation form and not for the date of travel, time you are handing in the reservation form and not for the train departure time. Use 24-hour clock to avoid confusion.

The next section is “For Office Use Only”. As the title says you shouldn’t write anything here. This place is for the Indian Railways official purposes.

Some Quick Tips
1. Children aged 5 – 11 travel at half the adult fare (pay full reservation charge).
2. Get a bunch of reservation forms.
3. Fill the from at home rather than at reservation counter, you can leave train no. and train name blank which can be filled later while reserving tickets or checking the timetable.
4. Figure out alternative trains for your route.
5. A reservation form is also a cancellation form.
6. Timings of Computerised reservation offices are : -
Monday – Saturday 08:00 – 14:00 and 14:15 – 20:00.
Sundays – 08:00 – 14:00.