Ticket absence no bar to rail accident compensation, rules Supreme Court
Supreme Court restores ₹8 lakh compensation to the parents of a man who died after falling from a moving train in Gujarat in 2017, holding that a missing ticket cannot defeat the claim.
The Supreme Court has held that the failure to recover a train ticket from a passenger who dies in a rail accident cannot, by itself, defeat a claim for compensation. A Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and A.S. Chandurkar made the observation while restoring an award granted to the parents of a man who fell from a moving train in Gujarat in 2017 and later died of his injuries.
The victim, Maheshbhai, was travelling towards Surat via Ahmedabad on September 27, 2017, when a sudden jerk and jolt threw him off the general compartment. He suffered grievous injuries and remained hospitalised for more than a month before succumbing on October 31, 2017.
On June 17, 2022, the Railways Claims Tribunal concluded that he was the victim of an "untoward incident" and that his parents, as claimants, were entitled to ₹8 lakh with interest at nine per cent per annum from the date of the incident. The Gujarat High Court subsequently set aside that award, prompting the appeal before the top court.
Setting aside the High Court order, the Bench said undue weight had been given to the missing ticket, while the sworn statement of the victim's father and the fact that the victim had been hospitalised for over a month had been overlooked. On a preponderance of probabilities, it concluded that the victim was a bona fide passenger and that the absence of the ticket could not defeat the compensation claim.
The court noted that the claimants had pleaded that the ticket, a handkerchief, a wristwatch, a comb and cash of ₹800–900 were lost. The father's deposition that his son had purchased a ticket discharged the initial burden on the claimants, shifting the onus to the Railways, which failed to rebut it, the Bench said. It also pointed out that the witnesses examined by the Railways did not check the victim's pockets.
The Bench further observed that it was unlikely the ticket would have been preserved while the victim was undergoing treatment. It also declined to rely on the investigation report, which was prepared on May 17, 2018 — about seven months after the incident — holding that the delay could not be attributed to the claimants and that the Railways could not benefit from its own delay.
Satisfied that the Tribunal had rightly granted compensation under Section 124-A of the Act of 1989, the Bench directed that the ₹8 lakh award be restored to the parents and paid within thirty days.