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Judgment
B. P. Routray, J
1.The matter is taken up through hybrid mode.
Heard Mr. K.K.Mohanty, learned counsel for the Appellants and Ms. Sahoo, learned Central Government Counsel for the Respondent.
Present appeal by the claimants is directed against the judgment dated 18th October, 2019 passed by Railway Claims Tribunal, Bhubaneswar Bench, Bhubaneswar in O.A.No.197 of 2015, wherein the Tribunal has refused to grant any compensation by disbelieving the case of claimants.
The case of the claimants is that, the deceased, their son, was travelling in Durg-Puri Express from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar on 4 December, 2014 with a valid journey ticket and during course of his journey, he accidently fell down from running train at Mancheswar Railway Station. The journey ticket was lost in course of the incident.
The Tribunal disbelieved the case of the Appellants mainly on the ground that no journey ticket could be recovered from possession of the dead body of the deceased and so he was not a bona fide passenger within the requirement of definition of untoward incident under Section 123(c) (2) of the Railways Act, 1989.
Admittedly, the dead body of the deceased was first noticed by the Loco Pilot and recovered lying in the railway track at KM No.421/31-33 in between BRAG-MCS Railway Station and accordingly, Mancheswar GRP Station Diary No.3182 dated 4.12.2014 was entered. As per the statutory investigation report submitted by the DRM, the Loco Pilot namely Pratap Kumar Sahu of Train No.58421 saw the dead body at 10:00 AM on Up line track. Inquest was held and postmortem examination was conducted. The cause of death was due to such injuries consistent with fall from running train. It is the specific case of the claimants that journey ticket of the deceased was lost during the course of incident and A.W.2 is the direct witness who saw the deceased boarding Durg-Puri Express at Cuttack. His evidence has not been rebutted successfully by the railways. Thus, mere absence of journey ticket would not disprove the case of the claimants regarding death of the deceased concerning accidental fall from running train. When all other materials and circumstances brought on record supports the claim and no adverse material is there to deny such contentions regarding death of the deceased, in the opinion of this Court, the claimants have successfully established their case that the deceased died due to accidental fall from the running train while travelling in Durg-Puri Express on 4th December, 2014.
In the result, the appeal is allowed and the Respondent-Union of India is directed to pay compensation of Rs.4,00,000/- (Four lakhs) along with interest @ 6% per annum from the date of accident or Rs.8,00,000/- (eight lakhs), whichever is the higher amount, in terms of the decision rendered in the case of Union of India vs- Rina Devi, (2019) 3 SCC 572, within a period of four months from today, where-after the same shall be disbursed in favour of both the claimants by keeping 50% of their shares in fixed deposits separately in their names respectively in any Nationalized bank for a period of five years.
Urgent certified copy of this order be granted on proper application.
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