In the absence of evidence suggesting suicide or self-inflicted injury, a death occurring during railway transit where the deceased is a bonafide passenger is deemed an 'untoward incident', triggering 'no-fault' liability for compensation under Section 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989.

1. This claim application has been filed by the applicants, being parents of the deceased u/s 124-A of the Railway Act, 1989 read with section 16 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987, claiming compensation to the tune of Rs. 10,00,000/-(Rupees Ten Lakh) alongwith interest from the respondent railway on account of death of one Aakash, in an alleged untoward incident, while travelling by passenger train.

2. The facts of the case, as narrated by the applicants in their claim application are that Aakash (hereinafter referred to as ‘the deceased’) was a student at Hisar and used to commute from railway station Jita Kheri to Hisar on the strength of a valid MST No. J-13259156 dt. 24.4.2019 alongwith valid ID issued by the railway department; that on 27.5.2019, he was going to Hisar by passenger train No. 54784 (Rewari – Fazilka) Local; that when the said train reached near Aurang Nagar railway station, Distt. Bhiwani, he accidentally fell down from the train and sustained grievous injuries; that Sonu Kumar, G.Man, Gate No. 19/B informed Station Master, Hansi, who issued memo to the GRP; that the GRP reached the site and started inquest proceedings; that the said QST was recovered from deadbody of the deceased; that the deadbody of the deceased was sent to Govt. Hospital, Hansi and that after post-mortem, deadbody of the deceased was handed over to the applicant No. 1 for performing last rites. Thus claiming the deceased to be a bonafide passenger of the train and the incident coming within the purview of Section 123(c)(2) read with Section 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989 and themselves to be the only dependents of the deceased, applicants have sought compensation from the respondent railway.

3. Written statement was filed, by way of reply, wherein the respondent have stated that during personal search of the deceased one QST bearing No. J13259156 with ID No. 3OUSCDC04C valid from 24.4.2019 to 23.7.2019 for journey from Jita Kheri to Hisar was recovered from deadbody of the deceased during jamatalashi which was duly verified and admitted to have been issued by the railway; that there is no eye-witness to the incident; that it cannot be ascertained how and in what manner the incident causing death of the deceased took place as the Gateman Sonu Kumar upon information from unknown persons that one person has fallen from Train No. 54784 at KM No. 114/5-4, informed Station Master, Jeetakheri but when he (Sonu Kumar) searched for the injured person, he found that he had already been taken to hospital by his family; that Sh. Satyanarayan, Guard of train No. 54784 stopped the train by applying emergency brakes on receiving information from some passengers that two persons have fallen down from the train but no person was found near the track upon search by the said Guard; that the incident is not covered within the meaning of Section 123 (c) read with Section 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989; that the incident might have occurred due to suicide, self-inflicted injury or due to own criminal act on the part of the deceased; that the present claim application is not maintainable; that the claim application has been filed with a delay of 543 days and the case of the applicants has been dismissed thrice due to non-appearance, therefore, applicants are not entitled to claim any interest on the delayed period and for the period in which application remained dismissed for non-prosecution till the same was restored. On merits also, other paragraphs of the claim application have been denied for want of knowledge or proof and a prayer has been made to dismiss the claim applicat