UNION OF INDIA Vs. R.L.YADAV

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 impugning the judgment of the Tribunal dated 8.2.2013 by which the Tribunal has allowed the claim petition filed by the respondents, who are the dependants of the deceased Mahendra Kumar who died in an untoward incident (within the meaning of the expression in Sections 123(c) & 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989) on 10.6.2010.

(2.) The facts of the case are that Mahendra Kumar, husband of respondent no.1, was travelling ex-Palwal to Ghaziabad in an EMU train alongwith his son on two valid tickets on 10.6.2010. There was a huge rush in the compartment and the deceased fell down from the train on account of a sudden heavy jerk in the train. The Railway Claims Tribunal has allowed the claim petition by making the following valid observations:-

(3.) I find no illegality whatsoever in the impugned judgment because once the body of the deceased is found in a crushed state and that too without clothes, the Tribunal was justified at the arriving that the ticket was lost during the untoward incident. I may also note that the son of the deceased was travelling with him, and he immediately after the incident made statement to the police with respect to the deceased-his father, falling down from the train and that the tickets have been lost in an untoward incident. The Tribunal also rightly holds, and in this regard I reject the argument of the counsel for the appellant, that the body could have been found at the adjacent tracks inasmuch as it is not conceivable that after fall from the train that the body can roll over or by any other circumstance found at the adjoining tracks. I have also commented in many judgments that the hyper-technical approach adopted by the Railways of requiring that the death must be 'as per the book' i.e as per the expected set of events is a misconceived argument because there is no divine camera by which captures can be made and can be replayed so as to show the exact sequence of events of a fall from the train and thereafter the passenger dying on account of being crushed or cut up etc.