The word "passenger," as used in Section 82-A of the Indian Railways Act, does not include a person traveling by train without a ticket or some other lawful authority.

( 1 ) THIS First Appeal From Order filed under Section 83-F of the Indian Railways Act, 1890, has been preferred against the judgment of the Ad hoc Claims Commissioner appointed under section 82-B of the Indian Railways Act (hereinafter referred to as the act), dismissing the claim of the appellants for compensation under Section 82-A.

( 2 ) A claim of Rs. 50,000/- had been preferred by the appellants for the death of Suraj Prakash, son of Smt. Sundri appellant no. 1 and brother of appellants 2 to 4. Suraj Prakash was 18 years of age at the time of his death. He was travelling with his father Chet Ram by 66 Dn. Janta Express from Hardwar to Bareilly when this train collided with a stationary goods train at Katghar near moradabad. Both father and son died in this accident on the spot. The appellants claimed that both the persons were travelling on a railway pass issued to Chet Ram as railway servant.

( 3 ) THE claim was contested by the Union of India on a number of grounds. We are, however, concerned only with one ground about the entitlement of the appellants to get the compensation. The Union of India claimed that Suraj Prakash since was not a bona fide passenger, the appellants could not get compensation under Section 82-A.

( 4 ) THE Claims Commissioner upheld the contention of the Union of India and held that Chet ram had by a misrepresentation obtained the pass for Suraj Prakash, his son, the deceased. The latter was not a bona fide passenger at the time of accident and so no compensation could be claimed for his death by the appellants. On this view, the claim petition was rejected. Against this judgment, the present appeal has been preferred under Section 82-F by the appellants who claimed themselves to be the dependants of the deceased.

( 5 ) AT the time of hearing of the appeal, reliance was placed by the Union of India on a case of this Court reported in Smt. Yashoda Devi v. Union of India (AIR 1979 AH 287), where a division Bench held that the word "passenger", as used in Section 82-A, did not include within its ambit a person travelling by train from one place to another without ticket or some other lawful authority.

( 6 ) DOUBTING correctness of the aforesaid decision, the Division Bench of this Court referred the present appeal to a larger Bench for deciding the question whether the law laid down in the aforesaid decision was correct, hence this Full Bench was constituted.

( 7 ) FOR the purposes of deciding the controversy, we may make a brief reference to the relevant provisions. At the threshold, it may be noted that the word passenger has not been defined in the act. Sections 62 to 71 of the Act deal with carriage of passengers. Section 66 lays down that every one who is desirous of travelling on a railway shall, upon payment of his fare, be supplied with a ticket. Section 68 imposes a prohibition against travelling without pass or ticket. It provides that no person shall, without permission of Railway servant (empowered) in this behalf by the railway administration), enter for remain in any carriage) on a railway for the purpose of travelling therein as a passenger unless he has with him a proper pass or ticket. Section 113 is in chap. TX and deals with penalties and offences. Under Section 113, penalties can be imposed on a person who travels without a pass or ticket or having an insufficient pass or ticket or travelling beyond the distance authorised by the ticket or the pass which he holds. It also deals with cases where a passenger travels in a higher class to which he is entitled to by virtue of the ticket he possesses. Section 122 deals with trespass and refusal to desist from trespass. Under this section, a railway servant empowered to do so would be entitled to remove a person travelling in contravention of the provisions of the Act.

( 8 ) FROM a review of the provisions stated above, it would be found that a person has to pay the requisite fare for travelling from one place to anoth