Madhya Pradesh High Court
Smt. Sukhiya Devi vs Union Of India on 29 February, 2024
Author: Anuradha Shukla
Bench: Anuradha Shukla
1
IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH
AT JABALPUR
BEFORE
HON'BLE SMT. JUSTICE ANURADHA SHUKLA
ON THE 29 th OF FEBRUARY, 2024
MISC. APPEAL No. 1040 of 2019
BETWEEN:-
SMT. SUKHIYA DEVI, W/O LATE SHRI RAJESHWAR RAI,
AGED ABOUT 43 YEARS, R/O GRAM MAKSUDPUR,
THANA SHAHPUR, DISTRICT PATNA (BIHAR)
.....APPELLANT
(BY MS. APARNA SINGH - ADVOCATE)
AND
UNION OF INDIA THROUGH ITS GENERAL MANAGER,
WEST CENTRAL RAILWAY, JABALPUR (MADHYA
PRADESH)
.....RESPONDENT
(BY SHRI RAKESH KUMAR JAIN - ADVOCATE)
Reserved on : 22.02.2024
Pronounced on : 29.02.2024
This appeal having been heard and reserved for orders, coming on for
pronouncement this day, the court passed the following:
ORDER
In this miscellaneous appeal preferred under Section 23 of the Railway
Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 the appellant has challenged the judgment dated
30.11.2018 (19.11.2018) delivered by the Railways Claims Tribunal, Bhopal, in
Case No.O.A./IIu/BPL/2013/0221 with only limited prayer to award interest on
compensation amount of Rs.8,00,000/- @ 9% per annum from the date of filing
of claim petition till its realization.
2. For the sake of convenience, the appellant shall be referred to here as
"claimant".
3. The brief facts of the case relevant for decision of this miscellaneous
appeal are that a claim petition was filed by claimant Sukhiya Bai regarding the
death of her husband who died in a train accident on 1.1.2013 on account of
falling off the train. The Tribunal originally passed the judgment in that claim
petition on 26.7.2018, but there was divergence in the opinion of the members
of Tribunal, hence a reference was made to the Chairman, Railway Claims
Tribunal, Principal Bench, Delhi, and the matter was decided by impugned
judgment on 30.11.2018. Under it, the Tribunal confirmed the compensation
amount of Rs.8,00,000/- but denied any interest thereon from the date of
accident.
4 . Aggrieved by the impugned judgment on the point of not awarding
interest from the date of filing of claim petition, this miscellaneous appeal has
been preferred in which the grounds raised are that the compensation awarded
should have entailed interest from the date of claim petition and denying this
interest is in contravention of law laid down in Miscellaneous Appeal
No.297/2015 (Smt. Kalibai v. Union of India) and Miscellaneous Appeal
No.299/2015 (Mithilesh Rani and others v. Union of India). It is, therefore,
prayed that interest in the sum of Rs.2,00,000/- be awarded in addition to the
compensation already awarded under the impugned judgment.
5. Both the parties have been heard and record of the Tribunal has been
perused. Counsel for the respondent has vehemently opposed this
miscellaneous appeal.
6 . The short question involved in this case is whether the claimant is
entitled to interest on the awarded compensation of Rs.8,00,000/- @ 9% per
annum from the date of accident and for this, reference has to be made to
citations submitted by the counsel for appellant.
7. The fatal incident in the present case occurred on 1.1.2013 and there is
no dispute between the parties that till that time Part I of the schedule of the
Railway Accidents and Untoward Incidents (Compensation) Rules, 1990 was
not amended. The amendment, which provided a compensation of
Rs.8,00,000/- in a fatal accident case, was enforced in 2016. Honourable the
Apex Court in Union of India v. Rina Devi, 2018 (3) ACCD 1339 (SC)
(d ec id ing Civil Appeal No.4945/2018), has settled the dispute that
compensation becomes due on the date of incident itself and not on the date of
passing the award, therefore, the claimant in this case was entitled to the amount
of compensation applicable as on the date of incident i.e. 1.1.2013 and the
compensation applicable on that date was Rs.4,00,000/- in a death case.
8. There is no dispute on this legal proposition after the judgments of
Rina Devi (Supra) and Kamukayi and others v. Union of India AIR 2023
SC 2761 that the amount of compensation payable on the date of accident is to
be awarded along with reasonable rate of interest and if the amount so
calculated is less than the amount prescribed as on the date of award, the
claimant would be entitled to higher of these two amounts. Applying this
principle in the present case, the amount of interest if added @ 9% per annum
to the amount of compensation payable as on 1.1.2013, which was
Rs.4,00,000/- in this case, and date of reckoning is from the date of filing the
claim petition i.e. 23.4.2013 till the date of passing the award, even then the
interest together with the compensation amount of Rs.4,00,000/- would fall
short of Rs.8,00,000/- which has been awarded in favour of claimant.
9 . It is, therefore, held that the total compensation of Rs.8,00,000/-
awarded to the claimant is in accordance with law and legal propositions, and
the impugned judgment suffers from no illegality; hence the impugned judgment
passed by the learned Tribunal is confirmed and this miscellaneous appeal is
dismissed for being devoid of merit.
10. Let the record of the Tribunal be sent back along with a copy of this
order for information and compliance.
(ANURADHA SHUKLA)
JUDGE
ps
Date: 2024.03.01 11:43:03 +05'30'
