JUDGMENT

Mr. Karamjit Singh, J.

(Oral) - The present appeal has been filed by the appellants against the order dated 24.10.2013 passed by the Railways Claims Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench (in short 'the Tribunal'), whereby the claim petition filed by the appellants/dependents of Smt. Rajdari, has been dismissed.

2. The brief facts of the case of the appellants are that deceased Rajdari was mother of all the appellants. On 10.12.2011, deceased who was aged about 59 years came to Faridabad along with appellant No.1. From Faridabad, the deceased purchased 2 tickets and then the deceased and appellant No.1 boarded train from Faridabad Railway Station for Hodal and the deceased boarded ladies compartment while appellant No.1 boarded the compartment which was next to ladies compartment. Due to heavy rush the deceased was standing on the gate of the compartment and suddenly the train suffered a heavy jerk due to which deceased fell from running train in between Solaka and Hodal. Appellant No.1 came to know about the said incident when he got down at Railway Station Hodal, where he did not find his mother. The matter was reported to the Railway Authorities and then appellant No.1 reached the place of incident, whereby the dead body of Rajdari was found lying. Officials of GRP also reached the spot and on checking the dead body, joint train ticket was found from the person of the deceased along with some other articles. The dead body was sent to General Hospital, Palwal whereby post-mortem examination was conducted and thereafter dead body was handed over to the appellants.

3. The claim petition was contested by respondent and the Tribunal framed the following issues:-

i. Whether the deceased was a bona-fide passenger of the train at the time of incident.

ii. Whether the incident is covered within ambit of Section 123(c)(2) read with Section 124-A of the Railways Act.

iii. Whether the applicants are the sole dependents of the deceased.

iv. Relief.

4. The appellants adduced evidence by way of affidavit of appellant No.1-Ash Mohamad, son of the deceased, who appeared in the witness-box as AW-1. The appellants also produced inquest report prepared by GRP, railway ticket No.33547346 Faridabad to Hodal meant for 2 passengers, voter ID card of Rajdari and some other documents.

5. On the other hand the respondent examined RW-1 Charanpal, Railway Gateman, RW-2, G. Gautam retired railwaygaurd, RW-3 Dharminder Singh Tomar, Station Master, Hodal and RW-4 Umesh Chand R. Gupta Loco Pilot along with DRMs inquiry report.

6. After hearing the counsel for the parties, the Tribunal rejected the claim of the appellants.

7. The Tribunal came to said conclusion on the ground that the deceased died due to hit and run over by train No.12954 near gate No.553 of Hodal Railway crossing, while she was crossing the railway track in a negligent manner. In this regard the Tribunal referred to deposition of RW-1 Charanpal Gateman and statement of RW-3 Dharminder Singh Tomar, Station Master Hodal. The Tribunal further came to conclusion that from the entire evidence available on the record, which has been led by the Railways, it is proved that deceased was not travelling in the train along with her son, which was going from Faridabad to Hodal and actually she met with an accident when she was crossing the Railway line near gate No.553.

8. However, the Tribunal while deciding issue No.3 held that the appellants along with 5 daughters of the deceased are her only dependents.

9. The counsel for the appellants while assailing the impugned order has argued that sufficient evidence is available on record to establish that the deceased boarded train from Faridabad to Hodal and untoward incident took place in between Solaka and Hodal and the deceased fell from running train and she died at the spot. That the deceased was travelling in ladies compartment while her son was sitting in another compartment of the said train and the joint ticket was found from the body of the deceased by