REKHA DEVI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS First Appeal u/S 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 is filed by the appellants against the judgment of the Railway Claims Tribunal dated 14.10.2011 which has dismissed the claim petition.

(2.) THE case of the appellants, and who were the applicants before the Railway Claims Tribunal, was that the deceased Mukesh Kumar, husband of applicant no.1 and the father of the applicants no.2 to 4 and son of applicants no.5 and 6, died on account of untoward incident of falling from the train on 23.10.2009. It was pleaded that the deceased was a resident of Khekra in District Baghpat (UP) and was aged about 32 years at the time of the incident. The deceased Mukesh Kumar was stated to have been travelling for his work of making switches on contract at Shahdara in Delhi from his residence in Khekra. It is pleaded that deceased Mukesh Kumar was accompanied by his brother Ravinder and both of them after purchasing two tickets boarded Passenger Train No.4 -SD at about 5.30 a.m. The train was stated to be crowded and on account of a certain jerk of the train, the deceased Mukesh Kumar fell down from the train and sustained injuries on his person at Khekra Railway Station, and which led to his death on the same date i.e 23.10.2009. Claim petition was accordingly filed claiming the statutory compensation totaling to Rs.10 lakhs.

(3.) IN addition to the above said reasons the Tribunal has relied upon the newspaper report of a local newspaper that the deceased Mukesh Kumar died on account of having been hit by train while strolling in the morning with other persons. Of course, I must state that newspaper reports cannot be believed because the content of any report has necessarily to be proved in accordance with law and a news report is not taken as proof of the contents of the report.