UNION OF INDIA Vs. PRATIMA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this first appeal under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 challenge is laid by the Union of India to the impugned judgment dated 16.5.2013 which has allowed the claim of the applicant-widow, respondent herein, and granted compensation for the death of her husband Sh. Sudesh Sav in an untoward incident on 10.3.2011.

(2.) The facts of the case are that the deceased Sh. Sudesh Sav purchased a ticket for travel from Delhi to Gaya by Neelanchal Express on 9.3.2011. The body of the deceased was found at the railway track on 11.3.2011. Body was found near the Paraiya Railway Station which is close to Gaya Junction, the destination point of the journey. On the search of the person of the deceased admittedly a railway ticket was found and this is so mentioned in the GRP report Ex. AW-1/9 conducted on behalf of the appellant itself. Therefore, the deceased was undoubtedly a bona fide passenger travelling on a valid train ticket and he died in an 'untoward incident' because the Railway Claims Tribunal has rightly noted that it is not required for the dependents of the deceased to reconstruct the chain of events giving the complete details of the journey and how the accident happened inasmuch as such dependents who did not travel with the deceased cannot know such sequence of events leading to the untoward incident. The Railway Claims Tribunal, in my opinion, has rightly in this regard given the necessary findings while dealing with issue nos. 1 & 2 and the same read as under :

(3.) The Tribunal, in my opinion, has also rightly observed that merely because the body was cut and run over by the train cannot mean that the deceased would have died by running over from a train inasmuch as Tribunal rightly observed that merely because the body is cut up it is not necessary he would have been run over by another train on a railway track. I also agree with this conclusion because in my opinion sometimes a person can get entangled in the steps of the train in which he is travelling and, therefore, the body of the deceased can be cut up.