PUNAM DEVI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present appeal under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 has been preferred against an order dated 07.09.2009 passed in Case No. OA 00299 of 1999 by Sri H.G. Sharma, learned Member (Technical) of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Patna Bench, Patna (hereinafter referred to as the Claims Tribunal ). By the said order the learned Claims Tribunal has dismissed the claim petition filed on behalf of the appellant under Section 125 of the Railway Act, 1989 read with Section 16 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987.

(2.) Short fact of the case is that the claimant/appellant had filed a petition claiming compensation of Rs. 4,00,000.00/- in the Claims Tribunal on the ground that her husband while traveling as a bona fide passenger had fallen down from a running train in between Gurpa and Gajhandi Railway Station on 06/07.02.1999. It was alleged that the husband of the claimant was returning from Gomo to Gaya and for the said journey he had purchased a second class ticket from Gomo Railway Station for coming to Gaya and boarded the Express Train in the night of 06/07. 02.1999. During the said journey accidentally he fell down between Gurpa and Gajhandi Railway Station (near Jaipur village) at K.M. 432 and received grievous injuries. In the morning of 07.02.1999 some people noticed the husband of the claimant in serious and almost unconscious condition, and thereafter, Ex-Mukhiya of Jaipur Panchayat namely, Sri Prasadi Yadav, was informed, who went to the site of untoward incident, to whom, her husband disclosed his name and address, and thereafter, he became unconscious. While Sri Prasadi Yadav was carrying her husband to hospital on way he succumbed to the injuries. On the basis of fardbeyan of Prasadi Yadav a U.D. case bearing no. 03 of 1999 dated 08.02.1999 was got registered at Fatehpur Police Station and same was forwarded to G.R.P., Koderma. In the case inquest report was prepared and autopsy was held on the dead body of the husband of the claimant at Magadh Medical College Hospital, Gaya, on the same day i.e. 07.02.1999, and thereafter, dead body was handed over for its cremation. Before the learned Claims Tribunal only the claimant / appellant was examined as A.W. 1. Besides her oral examination, copy of fardbeyan was got exhibited as A-1, copy of final report as A-2, inquest report as A-3, post-mortem examination report as A-4, dependency certificate A-5 and statement on oath of the claimant as A-6.

(3.) In the case before the learned Claims Tribunal the respondent / Eastern Railway, Kolkata appeared and filed written statement raising objection to the claim petition on the plea that the alleged accident was not an untoward incident in terms of Section 123 of the Railways Act, the deceased was not a bona fide passenger, besides other grounds.