KALIKA & ANR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants have challenged the judgments dated 26th July, 2011 whereby five claim applications for compensation have been dismissed by the Railway Claims Tribunal.

(2.) The appellants filed five claim applications before the Railway Claims Tribunal on the averments that Bachani Devi (wife of appellant No.1 in FAO 462/2011), Kripa Shankar (son of appellant No.1 in FAO 462/2011), Bindu (daughter-in-law of appellant No.1 in FAO 462/2011) and Pooja and Kalli (grandchildren of appellant No.1 in FAO 462/2011) boarded an EMU Train no.GDP-3/GNP-3/64055 from New Town Railway Station, Faridabad for travel to Delhi on 13th January, 2010 after purchasing the tickets; the driver applied a strong brake as soon as the aforesaid train left New Town Railway Station, Faridabad due to which all the aforesaid persons fell down from the moving train opposite to the platform and after a minute, a superfast Rajdhani train came from opposite side and crushed the aforesaid five persons.

(3.) The Railways contested the claim on various grounds, inter alia, that the deceased persons were not travelling and were not bona fide passengers of any train; the timing of alleged EMU train at New Town Railway Station, Faridabad was 08:51-08:52 hours whereas Rajdhani Train No.2432 by which they were allegedly run over was 11:29-11:34 hours; the distance between the two tracks was more than eight feet and it was not possible for a person travelling in EMU to fall on the opposite track which is eight feet away.