PHILOMINA Vs. INDIAN RAILWAYS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners are wife and son respectively of a Railway porter by name K.V.Devassikutty who died in an accident that occurred at the Alwaye Railway Station on 3.3.2003. The case of the petitioners is that while pulling a trolley by the said Mr.Devassikutty along with other porters, the trolley hit an obstacle namely, a stone in the Railway platform and on account of the impact Mr.Devassikutty was thrown to the railway track on which a goods train was passing. The two legs of Mr.Devassikutty beneath the waist were cut off and he lost his fingers on the hand. Even though he was taken to the Hospital at Alwaye and later to the General Hospital, Ernakulam, he succumbed to the injuries on the very same day. The petitioners filed claim petition before the Railway Claims Tribunal, which was rejected as not maintainable without even an order. Therefore, the petitioners have approached this court invoking the extra ordinary jurisdiction of this court for awarding compensation for the death of said Devassikutty.

(2.) I have heard counsel appearing for the petitioners and Standing Counsel for Railways. Even though detailed counter affidavit is filed stating that Railway is not liable to pay compensation as the said Mr.Devassikutty, a licenced Porter is not an employee, the incident that led to loss of life of the said Devassikutty is not denied by the Railways. Obviously therefore, this court has to assume that the said Devassikutty died in the incident as stated by the petitioners. Besides this, petitioners have produced Ext.P1 Death Certificate, Ext.P2 Post-Mortem Certificate and F.I.R. filed by the Railway Police namely, Ext.P3, to prove their case and the last of the documents namely, the FIR contain the statements of the co-worker who has given the first information as follows:

(3.) Counsel for the Railways submitted that even if this court in principle hold that the petitioners are entitled to compensation for the death of Devassikutty, the matter has to be referred to the Railways Claims Tribunal. The rate of compensation for death is specified under the Schedule to the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987. Adjudication is called for when compensation is within the discretion of the Tribunal. However, since in this case the victim of the untoward incident died, it is a matter of granting the compensation available under the Schedule to the Act for the person dying on account of such untoward incident, which is stated in the counter affidavit as Rs.4 lakhs. In the circumstances, W.P. is allowed directing the respondent to give a compensation of rupees four lakhs to the petitioners on production of Legal Heirship Certificate stating that they are the only legal heirs of the deceased, within a period of one month from the date of production of copy of this judgment along with Heirship Certificate.