UNION OF INDIA Vs. HARI NARAYAN GUPTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant. Union of India, has challenged the order dated 30-5- 1997 passed by the Railway Claims Tribuna,1 Jaipur Bench, Jaipur (henceforth to be referred to as 'the Tribunal', for short) whereby the learned Tribunal has granted a compensation of Rs. 2,00,000/- along with an interest of 12% per annum to the claimants.

(2.) Briefly, the facts of the case are that on 21 -12-1994 one Devendra Kumar Gupta was travelling by Agra Shuttle, from Kota to Sawai Madhopur, with a valid second class ticket. One of his friends, Mr. Anil Kumar Gupta, came to the Railway Station with Devendra Kumar Gupta, bought a ticket for him for Sawai Madhopur and handed over the same to him. Despite the heavy rush in the train Devendra Kumar Gupta boarded the train. But he never reached the destination. Since he never reached home, his parents, the claimants, made inquiries about his whereabouts. They were informed that someone had fallen from the running train and had died near Sumerganj Mandi. To their shock, the person was none other than their son. Therefore, they filed a claim petition before the learned Tribunal. The appellant submitted their written statement and denied the averments made in the claim petition. According to the appellant, burden of proof lies on the claimants to establish the fact that their son was a bona fide passenger. However, the claimants had not discharged this burden. Moreover, according to them, the case is not covered under the definition of "untoward incident" as given under Section 123(c) of the Railways Act, 1989 (henceforth to be referred to as 'the Act', for short).

(3.) In order to prove their case, the claimants filed an affidavit of claimant No. 1 and of Mr. Anil Kumar Gupta. They also filed a number of documents. The appellant neither examined any witness nor filed any document. After going through the oral and documentary evidence, the learned Tribunal decided the claim petition in favour of the claimants as aforementioned. Hence, this appeal before this Court.