The mere absence of a journey ticket does not negate a claim of being a bona fide passenger under the Railways Act, as the initial burden lies on the claimants and shifts to the Railways to disprove the claim.

JUDGMENT :

Vakiti Ramakrishna Reddy, J.

This Civil Miscellaneous Appeal is filed against the order dated 12/03/2019 passed in O.A.A. 175/2015 by the learned Railway Claims Tribunal Secunderabad, wherein the application filed by the applicants under section 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989, claiming compensation of Rs 10,00,000/- with interest and costs from the South-Central Railways, Secunderabad for the death of the deceased in an untoward incident that occurred on 22.04.2015, was dismissed.

2. For the sake of the clarity and convenience, the parties hereinafter shall be referred as per their status before the Tribunal.

I. BRIEF FACTS

3. The applicant Nos.1 to 4, who are the wife and children of Syed Baba (hereinafter referred to as ‘the deceased’) and are residents of Jahangirabad, Bandlaguda, Hyderabad. The deceased was working as a cook. On 21.04.2014 after informing his wife, the deceased went to Mahabubnagar for cooking work and stayed overnight at the house of his relative, by name, Syed Hussain. After completion of his work, while returning along with his relative i.e., Syed Hussain, in the morning hours of 22.04.2015, the deceased purchased a journey ticket from Mahabubnagar to Falaknuma and thereafter boarded the Passenger Train Number 57306 (Guntur-Secundrabad). While travelling, the deceased allegedly slipped and fell down accidentally from the running train at kilometer No. 74/7-8, between Gollapalli and Balanagar railway stations and sustained severe fatal injuries, resulting in his death on the spot. It is the contention of the applicants that journey ticket was lost in the accident as the deceased suffered multiple injuries and also his clothes were badly torn.

4. In reply to the said application, the respondents filed a written statement denying all the allegations and averments made therein. The respondents contended that there was no cause of action for the applicants as the claim does not fall within the ambit of Section 123 , (c) (2) or Section 124 -A of Indian Railways Act, 1989. It was further stated that an enquiry was conducted by the Senior Divisional Security Commissioner (Sr.DSC), Hyderabad, into the alleged incident under The Railway Passengers (Manner of Investigation of Untoward Incidents) Rules, 2003, which revealed that the Guard of the train stated that on 22.04.2015, he worked on the Train No. 57306 from Dhone to Kachiguda and during his duty hours, there was no jerk or jolt to the train and no passenger fell down from the said train. Therefore, according to the respondents, the incident was not an untoward incident, as there was no eye-witness to the alleged occurrence. It was further stated that from the pocket of deceased, ten (10) visiting cards, in the name of the deceased, a slip containing mobile number and one white color paper slip were recovered but no journey ticket was found. Hence, the contention of the applicants that ticket was lost in the accident was denied and untenable. It was further alleged that the act of the deceased amounts to self-inflicted injury, falling within the exceptions under clauses (b) & (c) of -A of the Railways Act, 1989 and therefore, the application was not maintainable before the Tribunal and the same was liable to be dismissed. It was further urged that in the inquest report, in column relating to ‘details of the loss of any luggage’, it was mentioned as ‘not applicable’ suggesting that the deceased had not lost anything including the journey ticke