Basant, J.

(i) Is the right under S.124A of the Railways Act one that is personal to the one on whom the right vests and consequently not heritable?

(ii) Cannot the sole legal heir of a decree holder step into his shoes after his death and claim recovery of the amount that has fallen due under Section 124A and which remains unpaid?

These questions are raised for consideration in this appeal.

2. A brief reference to facts may be necessary to ascertain the precise dispute. Sreekumar - the victim, a bachelor succumbed to injury suffered by him in an untoward accident on 27.6.2008. He left behind as his kin, his father, mother and one brother. His father as one of the dependents claimed amounts under Section 124A of the Railways Act before the Railway Claims Tribunal. The claim was allowed vide order dated 24.2.2010. Prior to that, the mother of Sreekumar, the only other dependent, had expired on 6.4.2009.

3. The claimant, father of Sreekumar also expired on 9.4.2010. The amount due under the order dated 24.2.2010 had not been paid to the deceased claimant prior to his death. In these circumstances, the appellant herein, the only legal heir of his deceased father, (admittedly he is not a dependent of the victim Sreekumar) wanted the award to be executed in his favour. He therefore filed application before the Railway Claims Tribunal claiming execution of the order and release of the amounts to him.

4. That application was resisted. The Railway Claims Tribunal by the impugned order took the view that the legal heir of a deceased dependent, who is not himself a dependent of the victim, is not entitled to seek execution of the order in favour of his predecessor/dependent. Accordingly, the Railway Claims Tribunal proceeded to pass the impugned order.

5. The Tribunal appears to have taken the view that only a dependent can seek execution of an order directing payment of amounts under Section - 124A of the Railways Act. In coming to the conclusion, the Tribunal appears to have taken the view that Chapter-XIII of the Railways Act is a self contained code to which other laws and general principles of law are not applicable.

6. The two questions referred to in paragraph-1 arise in this context. We note that question No.2 directly arises for consideration though question No.1 also incidentally arises for consideration.

7. While the appellant concedes that a claim under Section 124A can be staked under Section 125 of the Railways Act only by a dependent, it is his contention that the order passed in favour of the dependent can be executed and fruits thereof can be realised by the legal heirs of a deceased dependent - decree holder. The learned counsel for the appellant Sri.Martin contends that it is incorrect to assume that the right under Section 124A is an exclusively personal right for the specified dependent which is not heritable by the legal heirs of the deceased dependent. The learned counsel for the Railways Sri.C.S.Dias on the contrary contends that going by the scheme of Chapter-XIII of the Railways Act, no one other than a dependent is entitled to claim the amount either by filing a petition or by seeking execution of an order passed in favour of a dependent.

8. We deem it necessary to have a survey of all the relevant provisions in Chapter-XIII to consider the crucial questions. Section-123 is the Section defining expressions. It will be appropriate for us to refer to 123(b) which defines a dependent.

123 - In this chapter unless the context otherwise requires.-

(b) "dependent" means any of the following relatives of a deceased passenger, namely:-

(i) the wife, husband, son and daughter, and in case the deceased passenger is unmarried or is a minor, his parent;

(ii) the parent, minor brother or unmarried sister, widowed sister, widowed daughter-in law and a minor child of a pre-deceased son, if dependent wholly or partly on the deceased passenger;

(iii) a minor child of a pre-deceased daughter, if wholly depe