P. AMSA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal is filed by the mother of the deceased challenging the rejection of her claim of compensation for the death of her son P. Sathya in a rail accident. The contention of the claimant before the Tribunal was that her son was working as a Turner in a Private Engineering Workshop at Chennai and she came to know through the Railway Police that her son died due to the injuries sustained by him due to falling down accidentally from a moving train and hence, she filed the claim petition seeking a compensation of Rs. 4,00,000/-.

(2.) The Railways filed reply statement contending that the deceased had attempted to board into the moving train and fallen down due to his own careless and negligent act and the deceased was not a bona fide passenger and no valid ticket was found in possession of the deceased and hence, the Railway is absolved from its liability.

(3.) The Railway Claims Tribunal, though found that there was an untoward incident as defined under section 123(c)(2) of the Railways Act, 1989 occurred to the deceased P. Sathya while travelling in one of the electric trains, held that the deceased was not a bona fide passenger as he was not in possession of a valid ticket, but in possession of an expired season ticket in the name of one Kumaraguru.