SUNITA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge by means of this first appeal under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 is to the impugned judgment of the Railway Claims Tribunal dated 10.3.2008 by which the claim petition of the appellants-applicants was dismissed. Appellants-applicants are the widow and children of the deceased Sh. Surender Kumar, an employee of Supreme Court, who died in an untoward incident of a fall from the train at about 9.05 A.M on 1.8.2006 in Delhi near Red Fort.

(2.) Whereas the case of the appellants/applicants was that the deceased Sh. Surender Kumar died on account of untoward incident because he was pushed out by passengers in a crowded train who were trying to get down from a slow moving train near Shani Mandir at Red Fort, the case of the respondent-Railways was that the deceased was trying to get down from a moving train and in this process he died, and therefore, the deceased died on account of his own criminal negligence or self-inflicted injuries thereby taking the case out of an "untoward incident" under Sections 123(c) and 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989.

(3.) The relevant observations/findings/conclusions of the Railway Claims Tribunal while dealing with issue nos.2 and 3 are as under:-