The judgment established the need for claimants to prove the status of the deceased as a bona fide passenger with a valid journey ticket and the occurrence of an accidental fall from the train to qualify for compensation under the Railways Act, 1989.

JUDGMENT :

MALASRI NANDI, J.

1. Heard Mr. G Goswami, learned counsel for the appellant. Also heard Mr. S.K. Das, learned counsel for the sole respondent.

2. Aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 21.06.2019 passed by the learned Member (Technical) RCT/GB in connection with OA IIu/06/2018 (Old) “OA IIu-GHY/06/2018 (New), the appellant, NF Railway has preferred this appeal whereby the Railway Claims Tribunal Guwahati Bench (for short, the Tribunal) allowed the compensation in favour of the claimant.

3. The case of the claimant is that the sole respondent/claimant filed a claim application before the Tribunal claiming compensation of Rs.10 lakhs on account of death of her husband Late Jitu Sonowal due to untoward incident. The contention of the respondent claimant is that the deceased was travelling from Dhemaji to North Lakhimpur in a train DN 15614 Intercity Express (Lachit Express) with a valid journey ticket and he accidently fell down from the running train and his body was recovered three meters away from the railway track. Thereafter, the dead body was sent for post mortem examination and a case was registered vide NLP/GRPS UD Case No. 17/2017 dated 25.06.2017.

4. The appellant as respondent contested the case before the Tribunal by filing written statement denying the allegation of the claimant. The appellant denied the fact that the deceased was a bona fide passenger in terms of the definition under Section 2(29) of the Railways Act, 1989 (for short, the Act of 1989) and as such the question of journey ticket having lost during the incident does not arise. From the inquest report, enquiry report and seizure list, it was revealed that the deceased was not carrying any valid journey ticket for the purported travel from Dhemaji Railway Station to North Lakhimpur Railway Station on 25.06.2017 in Intercity Express. It is also alleged that the death was not due to any accident as per the mandate of Section 123(C) of the Act of 1989.

5. After hearing the parties and on perusal of the documents on record, learned Tribunal delivered the judgment directing the appellant to make payment of Rs.8 Lakhs to the respondent/claimant together with interest of 6% per annum from the date of accident till realization.

6. Learned counsel for the appellant has argued that the learned Tribunal has acted illegally by not considering the fact that there is no eye witness to the incident of falling of the deceased from the Intercity Express in between Baginadi Railway Station and Gogamukh Railway Station. It is also submitted that no journey ticket was found with the dead body. There is no eye-witness to the incident as per the report of the Divisional Security Commissioner, RPF, Rangiya. As per the statement of one Santiram Kalita who was the guard of the Train No. Dn 15614 Lachit Express on 23.06.2017, he received no information about falling down of any person from the train in between Baginadi Railway Station and Gogamukh Railway Station. But the learned Tribunal whimsically passed the judgment and order dated 21.06.2019 without appreciating the report of the Divisional Security Commissioner, RPF, Rangiya.

7. Leaned counsel for the appellant also pointed out that the Tribunal failed to consider the fact that the claimant while filing the claim petition had mentioned that the incident occurred on 23.06.2017. Subsequently, she filed an amendment petition, whereby they claimed that the incident occurred on 25.06.2017. The said petition was allowed by the learned Tribunal. The post mortem was done on 26.06.2017 and as per the post mortem report, the approximate time since death was 72 hours. But as per the claim of the claimant/respondent, the incident occurred on 25.06.2017 which makes the claim of the respondent redundant because as per her claim, the death of her deceased husband should have occurred within 24 hours and not 72 hours. It is also to be noted that as per the post mortem report, the dead body was in early stage of decomposition.

8. Learn