The court established that a deceased must be a bona fide passenger to claim compensation under the Railways Act, and evidence of trespassing negates such status.

JUDGMENT :

1. This First Appeal is at the instance of original Applicant whose claim for grant of compensation on the ground of death of her son in an incident which occurred on 9^th July 2018 has been dismissed by the Railway Claims Tribunal vide impugned judgment dated 8^th March 2023 passed in Application No.14 of 2019.

2. The contention in the Claim Application was that on 9^th July 2018, the deceased was travelling from Thane to Kopar by local train in second class compartment holding a valid second class railway ticket and when the local train had reached near KM 46/10 and 46/11 between Kopar Railway Station and Diva Railway Station, due to push from the crowd, the deceased accidentally fell down from the train and sustained injuries and expired. It was pleaded that deceased was travelling from Thane to Kopar holding a valid second class return railway ticket from Kopar to Thane but the said ticket was lost in the untoward incident.

3. The defence of Respondent-Railways was that the statutory investigation report dated 18^th December 2019 prepared by Mumbai Division reflects that deceased was knocked down by a train while trespassing the tracks on 9^th July 2018 at about 21.40 hours between Kopar and Diva stations on Up Line at KM No.46/10 – 46/11 and that the victim was found lying on up / through track. It was denied that deceased was a bona fide passenger as no valid ticket was recovered upon search by GRPF from the body of deceased.

4. The Applicant examined herself and deposed as per the contents of her Application. She deposed that on 9^th July 2018, the deceased had purchased second class railway return ticket from Kopar to Thane in her presence and thereafter both boarded local train in different compartments. She has deposed that both alighted at Thane Station and the deceased told her that he was going to meet Mukadam for some work and she left for her work. She has further deposed that on 9^th July 2018, deceased started his return journey by local train from Thane to Kopar holding a valid second class railway ticket and when the train reached between Kopar and Diva stations, the deceased fell down from train. She has deposed that ticket was lost during the course of untoward incident. She has further deposed that on 10^th July 2018 when she reached home, her son was not at home and after 5 to 6 days she lodged a missing complaint with Ramnagar Police Station, Dombivali East. She has deposed that on 14^th August 2018 she had gone to Dombivali Railway Police Station to make inquiry and at that time she was informed that deceased had fallen down from running train. In support of her deposition, she has produced the true copies of station master’s memo, inquest panchnama, post mortem report, photocopies of ration card, Aadhar card and bank passbook.

5. In the cross examination, she has admitted that she had seen the deceased at Thane at about 8.00 p.m. and thereafter he left to meet his mukaram and did not return home for about 20 days. She has admitted that copy of missing complaint filed by her is not available with her. She has stated that after a period of 10 days she was called by Dombivali Railway police to identify the photograph of deceased and nothing was recovered from the possession of deceased.

6. Respondent–Railways examined the motorman of Train No.S-52 and the guard of Train No.S-52. The motorman has deposed that on 9^th July 2018 when his train was passing between Kopar and Diva, he suddenly saw a person standing on the up/through track and that he immediately applied the emergency break and b