UNION OF INDIA OWNING SOUTHERN RAILWAYS Vs. RATHINAMMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved over the award passed by the Railway Claims Tribunal, Chennai Bench, in O.A.No.2010 00080 of 2010, dated 04.01.2011, the Railway has preferred this Civil Miscellaneous Appeal.

(2.) According to the Railway, the deceased was not a bona fide passenger and there was no probability for the untoward incident alleged to have taken place. The Tribunal failed to see that the police report is on extraneous consideration and the Tribunal ought not to have accepted the documents marked by the claimants. No eye witnesses were examined to prove that the deceased was travelling by train and the decision of the Tribunal came to be passed on presumption and surmises, only because the onus lies on the Railways to prove the case, the Tribunal has mechanically awarded compensation. The order passed by the Tribunal is erroneous and based on conjectures and surmises. The accident has not been proved, yet, the award was granted to the claimants.

(3.) According to the applicants, the deceased left the house at Nagalapuram informing that he was proceeding to Chennai to see his younger son, the 3rd applicant. He always used to travel by train from Dindigul to Chennai. On 18.07.2009 at early hours, he had an accidental fall near Tamaraipadi and on information to the Station Master at Tamaraipadi, he was sent to Government Hospital, Dindigul and thereafter, shifted to Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai, where he died on 20.07.2009. Since the deceased did not reach Chennai, the applicants searched him everywhere and lodged an FIR on 27.07.2009 with Podi Rural Police Station in FIR No.259 of 2009 as man missing case. A publication was given on 28.07.2009, pursuant to which the reporter of the Tamil Daily "Dina Thanthi", informed the applicants about the death of an unidentified body near Dindigul. On approaching Dindigul Railway Police, they could identify the deceased from the photograph taken by them. On the death, they made this claim petition for compensation.