RUKMANI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgement shall decide an appeal preferred by the appellant, who is wife of the deceased. The deceased is alleged to have died in an untoward accident involving a train, and the appeal is instituted under Sec. 23 of The Railways Act, 1989[1] directed against the judgment dtd. 29/5/2017 passed by the Ld. Presiding Officer, the Railway Claims Tribunal, Principal Bench ('RCT') in OA (IIu) No. 2001-2016, whereby the claim petition was dismissed.

(2.) Briefly stating, a claim petition was filed by the appellant seeking compensation of Rs.8.00 lakhs with interest from the date of accident involving the death of one Moti Chand, husband of the appellant, arising out of a train accident on 19/10/2016. The incident happened between 6:00 a.m. to 7:20 a.m. within the jurisdiction of PS Saini, District Kaushambi, State of UP. It is pertinent to mention that the learned RCT framed the issues, which are as under:-

(3.) Although the claim of the appellant/wife was supported by AW-2 Ram Bahadur S/o Bhrigurasan aged about 38 years, learned RCT did not find his version to be inspiring confidence, and therefore, found that the burden of proving that the deceased was a bona fide passenger had not been discharged. As regards Issue No.2, it was found that the nature of injuries opined in the post mortem report did commensurate with the accidental fall from the train, and therefore, the death of the victim did result on account of an "untoward incident". Issue No.3 was answered in favour of the claimant. However, in light of the decision on Issue No. 1, the claim petition was dismissed.