NEHA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of present appeal filed under Sec. 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987, the appellants, who were claimants before the Railway Claim Tribunal, challenged the judgment dtd. 7/9/2020 whereby their claim application filed was dismissed.

(2.) Appellants claimed themselves to be wife and minor children of deceased late Sh. Vivek Sharma who statedly died in an untoward incident on 29th/30/1/2019. It was claimed that on the said date, late Sh. Vivek Sharma undertook a train journey from New Ghaziabad Railway Station to Muradnagar Railway Station by a passenger train after purchasing a valid journey ticket. However, in the accident, his bag alongwith his purse and the journey ticket were lost which could not be recovered. While dismissing the claim application, the Tribunal arrived at the conclusion that in absence of recovery of any journey ticket, the deceased could not be held to be a bonafide passenger and a victim of an untoward incident especially because his body was discovered after a considerable gap.

(3.) Learned counsel for the appellants while assailing the aforementioned observations in the impugned order contended that the Tribunal failed to appreciate the testimony of Smt. Vineeta who had deposed that she was witness to the deceased purchasing the train journey ticket as well as to him boarding the train.