JUDGMENT :

S.M. SUBRAMANIAM, J.

1. The judgment dated 03.11.2015 passed in OA (II-U)319/2014 is under challenge in the present Civil Miscellaneous Appeal.

2. The details of the untoward incident occurred, which resulted filing of an application under Section 16 of the Railways Act, which stated as under:

"On 22.05.14 after seeing his wife at his aunt's house at Kesaavaram Village, he left for his native place by train. The applicants came to know from the Gudur Railway Police, that the deceased, while traveling in any one of the train, prior to 09.00 hrs of 22.05.14, due to rush and jerk of the train, accidentally fell down from the running train between Naidupeta and Pedapariya Railway Stations, suffered grievous injury on head, near left eye, near left ear and died at the place of occurrence. It was an untoward incident. The second class ticket purchased by the deceased for his travel from Nayudupet to Gudur was said to have been lost at the time of accident and the same could not be traced by the police authorities."

3. The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondent/Railways mainly contended that the Divisional Railway Manager ['DRM' for brevity] Gummidipoondi, made a finding that "the deceased might have accidentally fallen down from unknown running train, while travelling on footboard run over and killed due to his carelessness."

4. Relying on the said findings, the learned counsel for the respondent/Railways reiterated that the accident occurred due to the negligence on the deceased and therefore, the appellants are not entitled for compensation. The observations made by the Railway Claims Tribunal in Paragraph 5.6 also relied upon and the said observations reads as under:

"(i) FIR (Exh. A-1) was lodged by police based on message from SM/NYP on 22.05.14 at 11.00 hours that at Shri Subramanyam, Acting Keyman on Unit No. 3 of SE/PW/NYP ID No. 13837 reported that he found a male dead body aged about 30 years lying between NYP-PYA down line at KM 112/20-22.

(ii) The applicants claim that the deceased had purchased a II class journey ticket from Nayudupet to Gudur for his travel.

(iii) As per inquest report Exh. A-6, there is no recovery of any journey ticket.

(iv) As per DRM report, the deceased not a bona fide passenger in the absence of any valid ticket or travelling authority.

(v) It is seen from SM Message (Exh. A-2) that the body was found between Nayudupet and Pedapariya Railway Stations at KM 112/20-22.

(vi) Even if it is presumed that the deceased had travelled by a train from Naidupeta, he would have hardly travelled for 4 Kms which would have been a fleeting journey and ticket checking staff of respondent would not have had the opportunity to check whether the deceased was travelling with a valid authority."

5. Regarding the said ground relied on by the appellant/Railways, this Court is of the considered opinion that the F.I.R lodged reveals that the accident occurred and the man died. The applicants claimed that the deceased had purchased a II class journey ticket from Nayudupet to Gudur for his travel. Admittedly, inquest report Exh. A-6 reveals that the train ticket was not retrieved. The DRM Report also reveals that the deceased was not a bona fide passenger in the absence of any valid ticket or travelling authority. The Railway Tribunal made an observation that even if it is presumed that the deceased had travelled by a train from Naidupeta, he would have hardly travelled for 4 Kms which would have been a fleeting journey and ticket checking staff of respondent would not have had the opportunity to check whether the deceased was travelling with a valid authority.

6. Non examination of the travelling ticket by the Travelling Ticket Examiner is not a ground to decline the benefit of compensation to the claimants, so also non availability of the Travelling Ticket or non retrieval of the travelling ticket are also not a ground to decline the benefit of compensation. Once, the factum regarding the accident was establi