UNION OF INDIA Vs. ANIL KUMAR GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this appeal, order dated 31.8.1998, in O.A. No. 417/97, by Railway Claims Tribunal. Bhopal, Bench Bhopal, has been challenged.

(2.) IT appears that the claimant -respondent Anil Kumar Gupta with minor Sumit Kumar were travelling by A.P. Express on 16.6.1997. The said train met with an accident resulting in grievous injuries to minor Sumit Kumar. He sufferred comminuted depressed fracture on the posterior parieto -occipital bone with some depressed bone fragments extending into the cranium. The minor through his father respondent Anil Kumar Gupta filed a Claim Petition under section 125 of the Railways Act, 1989.

(3.) LEARNED counsel for the appellant submitted that the Railway authorities could not pay compensation as the injury was not specified in Part II or Part III of the Schedule to the Railway Accidents (Compensation) Rules, 1990. Hence, they were not at fault if the respondent was required to file the petition. It was, therefore, urged that the Tribunal erred in awarding interest @ 12% per annum payable from the date of petition. It was urged that interest deserves to be reduced.