[2026:RJ-JP:4474]

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN BENCH AT JAIPUR S.B. Civil Miscellaneous Appeal No. 1076/2008 Shankar Lal S/o Sh. Kisanlal, age 52 years R/o Adalat Road Guru Dware Ke Pass Chowmahala, Thana Gangshar, District Jhalawar ----Appellant Versus

1. Union of India through Western Central Railway Jabalpur

2. Smt. Jatan Bai W/o Shankar Lal age 48 yrs. R/o Adalat Road Guru Dware ke Pass, Cowmaala, Thana Gangdhar, District Jhalawar ----Respondent For Appellant(s) : Mr. Deepak Goyal, Adv.

For Respondent(s) : Mr. Pawan Pareek, Adv. with Mr. Manish Acharya, Adv.

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAVI CHIRANIA

Order

1. The appellant-Shankar Lal S/o Kishanlal has filed the present appeal under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act of 1987’ for short) challenging the judgment/award dated 20.09.2007 passed by the learned Railway Claims Tribunal, Jaipur Bench, Jaipur (hereinafter referred to as ‘learned Tribunal’ for short) in Claim Petition No. O.A. No.II/17/2004 titled as Sh. Shankar Lal and Anr. Vs. Union of India, whereby the claim petition filed by the appellant was dismissed.

2. Learned counsel submitted that the appellant is the father of the deceased Mohan Lal, who died in a railway accident that occurred on 16.06.2003, while he was traveling from Chowmahala to Kota in Train No.2955 (Dn. Mumbai Central – Jaipur Super Fast Exp.). Learned counsel submitted that the deceased had a valid second class passenger ticket and due to jerk and heavy rush in the compartment, he fell down from the train and died on the said unfortunate day i.e. 16.06.2003. The appellant thereafter filed a claim petition before the learned Tribunal which was registered as O.A. No.II/17/2004. He further submitted that the deceased was the unmarried son of the appellant and that the appellant was informed about the mishap by one Brij Mohan Punjabi, a resident of the same area and well known to their family, and that the body was therefore identified.

3. Learned counsel further submitted that for the said incident a MERG Report under Section 174 Cr.P.C. bearing No.6/2003 dated 16.06.2003 was registered by the Police. He further submitted that on perusal of the postmortem report, it is evident that the deceased suffered serious injuries all over the body, including the head. The postmortem report further disclosed that the deceased died as a result of falling from the train, therefore, there is no dispute that the deceased died during his journey by train on the unfortunate day. However, the claim was not properly examined and entertained and was wrongly rejected by the learned Tribunal. 4. Learned counsel further submitted that in Exhibit A/5 i.e. Final Report prepared under Section 174 Cr.P.C., it was specifically recorded that the deceased died due to falling from the running train, however, the accident was not noticed by any passenger, and therefore, the complete incident, though, went unnoticed immediately, however, later on somebody informed the Chowmahala Station Master that a dead body was lying under the railway bridge, who then informed the police. Thereafter the body was picked up by the police around 10:30 a.m. and the postmortem was conducted at around 12:40 p.m. on 16.06.2003 itself.

5. Learned counsel further submitted that despite sufficient evidence on record, the learned Tribunal wrongly rejected the claim petition by passing impugned order dated 20.09.2007. He, therefore, prayed that the police investigation itself contains specific fact that the deceased died due to falling from the running train and the complete belongings were found missing, therefore, the appellant deserves to be granted compensation as claimed in the claim petition and the present appeal deserves to be allowed by quashing the impugned order.

6. Per contra, learned counsel for the respondent-Union Of India, Mr. Pawan Pareek vehemently opposed the arguments and submitted that the learned Tribunal minutely examined the place and ti