Papitham Mary And 3 Others vs Union Of India
2023 Latest Caselaw 4109 Tel

     THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE M.G.PRIYADARSINI

        CIVIL MISCELLANEOUS APPEAL No.452 OF 2016

JUDGMENT:

Aggrieved by the dismissal Order passed by the Railway

Claims Tribunal, Secunderabad Bench (for brevity, 'the Tribunal'),

in OA II (U) No.307 of 2008, dated 18.03.2016, the applicant Nos.1

to 4 have preferred the present appeal.

2. For the sake of convenience, hereinafter, the parties will be

referred as per their array before the Tribunal.

3. The brief facts of the case are that, the applicants who are

wife, minor children and mother of the deceased-P.Jyothi Kumar @

Jyothi (hereinafter will be referred as 'deceased') filed an application

under Section 16 of Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 seeking

compensation of Rs.8 lakhs on account of the death of the

deceased, who died in an untoward incident that occurred on

27.08.2008. On 27.08.2008 night the deceased along with his elder

brother Abraham and his sister Esther Rani went to Nellore Railway

station. The deceased and his brother gave send off to their sister

to Hyderabad by Narayanadri Express and thereafter the deceased

purchased one journey ticket for himself from Nellore to Tirupati to

have darshan of Lord Venkateshwara Swamy. After some time the

deceased boarded train No.7230 Sabari Express in a general 2 MGP,J Cma_452_2016

compartment and while travelling, when the train was passing

between Nellore and Vedayapalem railway stations, the deceased

accidentally slipped and fell down from the train at about 10-50

P.M., sustained injuries and died. The journey ticket of the

deceased is stated to have been lost during the accident. Hence the

claim.

4. The respondent-Railways filed written statement along with

Divisional Railway manager's report denying the averments of the

application and contended that the deceased was not a bona fide

passenger and his death was not on account of any untoward

incident as alleged. Hence, prayed to dismiss the application.

5. Based on the above pleadings, the Tribunal framed the

following issues:

1. Whether the applicants are dependents of the deceased?

2. Whether the deceased was a bona fide passenger of train No.7230 Sabari Express while travelling from Nellore to Tirupati on 27.8.2008?

3. Whether the deceased died as a result of an untoward incident of accidental fall from the said train?

4. To what relief?

6. Before the Tribunal, on behalf of the applicants, A.W.1 and

got marked Exs.A.1 to A.7. On behalf of respondent-railways, no

witness was examined, however, Divisional Railway Manager's

report was marked as Ex.R1.

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7. The Tribunal after considering the evidence on record, both

oral and documentary, has dismissed the application. Aggrieved by

the same, the appellants/applicants have filed the present appeal.

8. Heard Sri M.Lakshma Reddy, learned counsel for the

appellants and Sri Krishna Kishore Kovvuri, learned Standing

Counsel for the Railways and perused the record.

9. The main contention of the learned counsel for the applicants

is that though the applicants proved their case by examining AW.1

and relying on the documents under Exs.A.1 to A7, the tribunal

without considering the same, has erroneously dismissed the

application. Hence, prayed to allow the appeal by awarding the just

and reasonable compensation.

10. Per contra, learned Standing Counsel for the respondent-

Railways submitted that the Tribunal, after considering all the

aspects, has rightly dismissed the application. Hence, interference

of this Court is not necessary.

11. Now the point for consideration is whether the order passed

by the learned Commissioner is sustainable under law?

POINT:

12. This Court has perused the entire material available on

record. Applicant No.1 who is the wife of the deceased was 4 MGP,J Cma_452_2016

examined as AW.1 and has reiterated the averments of the

application. According to AW.1, on the date of incident the deceased

along with his brother Abraham went to the Nellore Railway station

to give send off to his sister Esther Rani. After giving send off to his

sister, he purchased journey ticket in the presence of his brother

Abraham to go to Tirupati for having darshan of Lord

Venkateshwara Swamy and boarded train No.7230 Sabari Express

in a general compartment. During the journey when the train was

passing between Nellore and Vedayapalem railway stations, the

deceased accidentally slipped and fell down from the train at about

10-50 p.m., sustained injuries and died. Admittedly, she is not an

eyewitness to the incident or purchasing journey ticket by the

deceased. Further no independent witness was examined by the

applicants in support of their case. The applicants also failed to

examine the brother of the deceased viz., Abraham, who witnessed

the purchasing of journey ticket by the deceased. Thus, the

question of purchasing journey ticket by the deceased is doubtful.

13. Further Ex.A1 F.I.R. discloses that on the basis of the

message received from the Station Superintendent, Nellore, which is

based on the information given by the Keyman of Unit No.7 on

30.8.2008 at 11-00 hours that he found a male dead body at KM

No.172/35-173/1, 10 meters away from up line opposite Siddu

Hospital. According to Ex.A2 Inquest report, one pocket note book 5 MGP,J Cma_452_2016

containing cell phone numbers, some papers, one identification card

issued by Srinivasa Outsourcing Services Private Limited,

Hyderabad with photograph and at a distance of 3 meters on upline

track right black chappal, blue colour ball pen and one steel nail

cutter were found and the dead body was found 6 meters away from

the track, but no journey ticket was recovered from the deceased.

Further though the brother of the deceased-Abraham was examined

by the police at the time of inquest, he did not state anything about

the journey ticket to the police. Ex.A3 postmortem examination

report shows that the deceased sustained 1) crush injury of left half

of the skull, face, left eye, 2) multiple fractures of the skull bones,

left temporal, parietal, occipital bones, maxilla, mandible at multiple

sites including skull bones, 3) lacerated injuries over middle 1/3rdof

thigh on left side and 4) fracture of the left femur lower end above

the knee joint and other internal injuries. Further it shows the time

of death as 5 to 7 days prior to postmortem examination which was

conducted on 31.8.2008.

14. On behalf of the respondent-Railways, no witness was

examined, however, Divisional Railway Manager's report marked as

Ex.R1, wherein it was concluded that, the deceased was not a bona

fide passenger and no such incident of fall of the passenger from the

train was reported to the railway authorities by anyone and the

nature of injuries, would indicate that it is not a case of accidental 6 MGP,J Cma_452_2016

fall from the train since all other articles were found intact with the

deceased except the journey ticket. In view of the above facts and

circumstances, it is clearly established through the evidence of

AW.1 coupled with the documents filed by them that the applicants

failed to discharge their initial burden of proving that the deceased

was not a bona fide passenger and no body witnessed while the

deceased fallen down from the train. Hence, this Court is of the

considered opinion that the Railway Claims Tribunal has discussed

the evidence available on record in detail and came to a correct

conclusion and rightly dismissed the claim application. Thus, there

are no grounds to interfere with the findings of the Tribunal and the

appeal is devoid of merits and liable to be dismissed.

15. In the result, the Civil Miscellaneous Appeal is dismissed.

There shall be no order as to costs.

Pending Miscellaneous applications, if any, shall stand closed.

______________________________ JUSTICE M.G.PRIYADARSINI

18.11.2023 PGP