ELAMBAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHEN strict liability is the basis of liability, whether it is enough for the Claimants to show that the death/injury, is not covered by any of the exceptions to Section 124 -A of the Railways Act, 1989, and it is out of an untoward incident, which could be a matter of inference by invoking the Concept of Notional Extension, is the issue to be decided in this Appeal.

(2.) THE Legal Representatives of the deceased Durai Somanathan filed the Application for Compensation before the Railway Claims Tribunal, claiming a sum of Rs.4,00,000 in respect of the death of Durai Somanathan in an untoward incident, which occurred on 4.3.2007 at Dindigul Railway Station.

(3.) BRIEF facts: On 4.3.2007, the deceased, his wife/the First Appellant and his daughter/ Fifth Appellant came to the Dindigul Railway Station and purchased a combined Ticket No.015504067, dated 4.3.2007 for traveling from Dindigul to Kumbakonam. All the three of them boarded the Train and then they came to know that they had boarded a wrong train, which was proceeding to Erode. The deceased attempted to get down and succeeded, but before the other two family members could get town, the Train started moving. The deceased, who got alighted from the Train, ran along the platform along with the Train and in the process, he suffered shock, heart ailment, fell down on the platform and he died instantly in the same place.