The main legal point established in the judgment is that the concept of 'self-inflicted injury' and 'untoward incident' under the Railway Act, and the principle that negligence of the victim cannot be considered in a claim based on 'no fault theory' were central to the court's decision.

JUDGMENT :

Heard learned Counsel for both the parties at the stage of admission.

2. The present appeal is filed by the appellants being aggrieved by the judgment and award dated 17/03/2022 passed by the learned Member, Railway Claim Tribunal, Nagpur in Claim Petition No.OA(II u)/NGP/235/2019.

3. The facts giving rise to file this appeal are as under:

On 30/03/2017, the deceased Shameem w/o Jugganbabu was traveling from H. Nizamuddin to Nagpur by Train No.22694 Rajdhani Express with her husband as a bonafide passenger with reserved ticket bearing No.78855433, PNR No.2228476884. That, while traveling, the deceased was standing near wash basin for washing her hand. Due to sudden jerk, the deceased lost her balance and fell down from the running train in the area of Tinkheda Railway Station. The deceased was brought to Nagpur by Train No.12724 NDLS-HYB Express and at Meyo Hospital Nagpur, after examination by doctor, she was declared dead on the same day.

On 30/03/2017, after above mentioned untoward incident, Railway Police Station Nagpur, Dist. Lohmarg, Nagpur has registered the accidental death report No.22/17 under Section 174 of Criminal Procedure Code in respect of accidental death of Shameen w/o Jugganbabu. On account of the death of Shameem w/o Jugganbabu in above mentioned untoward incident, dependents of the deceased i.e. the appellants preferred to file Claim Petition No.OA (II u)/NGP/235/2019 before learned Railway Claims Tribunal, Nagpur, for claiming compensation of Rs.8,00,000/- along with 9% interest from the date of accident.

4. To this claim of appellants, the respondent filed his written statement and opposed the claim application denying the contention of the claimants. The respondent claimed that the alleged incident does not come within the purview and meaning of untoward incident. It is contended by the respondent railway that the deceased was trying to alight from running train and during this process, she fell down from the running train and sustained injuries and died and therefore the Railway Authority is not responsible for compensating the claimants.

5. After considering the evidence and record before it, the learned Tribunal held that it was a case of a fall while making unsuccessful attempt for alighting from a running train at a place where it did not have its schedule halt and therefore incident does not come under an untoward incident as defined in Section 123 (c) (2) of the Railway Act and dismissed the claim petition preferred by the claimants.

6. The contention of the appellants is that the Railway Tribunal failed to consider that it is admitted fact that the said train slowed down at that station for signal. Furthermore, deceased fell down from the said train while she was standing near wash basin due to speeding up of train and sudden jerk. Thus, it does not exclude present incident of the death of the deceased from the definition of the “untoward incident” of the train. Therefore, the observation of the learned Tribunal that deceased was not a victim of untoward incident needs to be quashed and set aside.

7. The learned Counsel for appellants relied on Union of India Vs. Rina Devi, reported in (2019) 3 SCC 572.

8. The Learned Counsel for Union of India, Ms Neerja Choubey supported the judgment of learned Tribunal and vehemently opposed the contentions of the appellants and stated that the alleged incident occurred while deceased was trying to alight from running train and due to his carelessness, fell down and died. This fact is rightly appreciated by the learned Tribunal and passed an appropriate order and therefore the said order needs no interference.

9. I have heard both the parties at length. Perused judgment and record and considered citation relied on by the parties. From the deposition of husband of deceased, it is clear that both were travelling on valid ticket and were bonafide passengers of the train coming from Hajrat Nijamuddin to Nagpur. The incident occurred on 30/03/2017. The contention