IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VIVEK JAIN

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ON THE 18 OF FEBRUARY, 2026 MISC. PETITION No. 245 of 2025 UNION OF INDIA Versus RAMKISHORE SAHU AND OTHERS Appearance:

Smt. Gulab Kali Patel with Shri Bharat Deep Singh Bedi - Advocates for the Petitioner/Union of India.

ORDER The present Petition has been filed challenging the Orders dated

06.09.2024 (Annexure P-2) and 10.12.2024 (Annexure P-1) passed by the Railway Claims Tribunal whereby the said Tribunal has directed payment of interest on the claim amount with effect from the date of incident till the date of the said Order and further interest @ 12% p.a. from the date of receipt of copy of Order till actual payment, in case the payment is not made within 60 days from the date of said order. The application for recalling of the said Order has been rejected by the Tribunal vide Order dated 10.12.2024 (Annexure P-1).

2. The necessary facts in brief for the disposal of the present Petition are that an application seeking compensation on death of the deceased was filed by the parents of the deceased who had expired while travelling on a train. Initially, the application was rejected by the Railway Claims Tribunal ("RCT" for short) vide judgment dated 28.06.2021 on the ground that the accident was as a result of the own negligent act of the deceased but later on, an appeal was filed before this Court by the Claimants and in M.A.No.2697/2021, this Court allowed the appeal and further ordered that the claim amount of Rs.8.00 lakhs shall be paid as compensation and the compensation be satisfied by the Railways within a period of 8 weeks from the date of the Order i.e, 01.03.2024.

3. When the said Order was produced before the RCT, then the RCT vide Order dated 06.09.2024 directed interest to be paid and as already mentioned above, now has rejected application for recalling of the said Order.

4. Learned counsel for the Petitioner/Railways has vehemently argued before this Court that the RCT could not have directed to pay interest because the RCT has simply rejected the claim application of the claimants vide its judgment dated 28.06.2021 and upon appeal being filed before the High Court, the High Court has not granted any interest but has simply awarded an amount of Rs.8.00 lakhs. Though the High Court might have inadvertently skipped out to award appropriate interest on the claimed amount but once the order passed in appeal does not award any interest then the RCT while enforcing the said award could not have directed payment of interest. It is argued that the Order of the RCT goes beyond the Order passed in appeal and the RCT could not have gone beyond the scope of the appellate Order and by doing so, the RCT has gone beyond of and in excess of the jurisdiction vested in it. Therefore, it is vehemently argued that this Petition be allowed and the order of award of interest be set aside.

5. Upon hearing the learned counsel for the Petitioner and on perusal of the record, it is seen that undisputedly, the RCT had dismissed the claim application and on appeal being filed before this Court, this Court had awarded an amount of Rs.8.00 lakhs to the claimants. However, this Court did not pass any specific order for grant of interest. It is also true that neither in the Railways Act, 1989 nor in the Railway Claims Tribunals Act, 1987, there is any mandatory provision to award interest on the Claim amount. Hence, it had been argued by the Railways that it is always at discretion of the Court to award the interest and once the High Court did not award interest, then it has to be inferred that High Court has refused interest on the awarded amount.

6. The grant of interest on death compensations is well established in Indian Law. In every case of death compensation, interest is invariably awarded because the compensation is always ascertained on the basis of the income and law prevailing on the date of death/accident. The assessment of compensation never takes