Valmiki J. Mehta, J (Oral)

1. By this first appeal under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act,1987, the claimants/appellants pray for setting aside of the impugned judgment of the Railway Claims Tribunal dated 30.8.2011 whereby the claim petition filed by the appellants seeking compensation was dismissed.

2. The claim petition was dismissed as the Railway Claims Tribunal held that the claimants/appellants failed to prove that the deceased was a bona fide passenger. The relevant findings and observations of the Railway Claims Tribunal read as under :

“After perusal of record, I observe that in the documents i.e. AW1/6 to AW1/9, placed on record by the applicants, it is no where mentioned that (deceased) fell down from the train and died. The burden of proof rests entirely upon the applicants to prove the untoward incident, within the meaning of section 123 (c) read with section 124-A of the Railways Act. In this connection, a reference may be made to a decision of Hon’ble Delhi High Court titled as Jamirul Nisha and another Vs. Union of India, 2009 ACJ 1393, wherein it is held in para no.34 & 35 of the decision as under:

“34. From the perusal of section 123 c 92) & 12