- (1.) The appellant preferred the first appeal against the judgement dated 29.11.2013 passed by the Railway Claims Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench, Chandigarh (herein after referred to as "the Tribunal") vide which the application of the appellants for the grant of compensation on account of the death of their son, Devraj, in an untoward incident on 16.11.2011, was dismissed. The case of the appellants is that their son, Devraj, who was living in Ferozepur City had gone to see his sister at Mathura on 13.11.2011 and stayed there for two days. Thereafter, he bought a ticket from Mathura Railway Station to Ferozepur, Punjab on 16.11.2011 and boarded an ordinary bogey in which there was huge crowd. The deceased stood on the back side of the train door. When the train reached at KM No. 1499/11-12 between Aswati and Ballabgarh Railway Station, the train took a heavy jerk due to which the deceased fell down from the running train and died on the spot.
(2.) The Railways in the written statement has taken the stand that the deceased was not the bonafide passenger of the train as no ticket was found from him. Only Rs. 450/- were recovered from the personal search of the deceased. Even if the accident had taken place, it was due to the negligence of the deceased. In view of the above stand, the Tribunal held that the deceased had died due to walking along the railway track and while crossing the railway line he was hit and that the death is due to his own negligence. It is also held that the deceased was not the bonafide passenger of the train as no ticket was found from his person. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have also carefully gone through the file. Regarding the railways ticket, it is to be seen that when a person falls from the running train, his clothes are likely to be torn and the body may have rolled several times and in this process, the printed computerized ticket, which is a small piece of paper, can be lost. Therefore, the same cannot be given any importance in such cases. Moreover, the deceased boarded the train from Mathura to Ferozpur and the approximate distance between these two stations is a of run of 8-10 hours. Meaning thereby, it is not possible to travel ticketless in such a long distance journey.
(3.) The report of Ramdev, Petrolman (Ex. A-4) shows that on 16.11.2011, a dead body of a man was found lying between IIIrd line and down main line after the rail accident at about 5.00 A.M. near the railway track at KM 1499/11-12. Since, the deceased belong to Ferozepur City and his sister is living in Mathura, it is not acceptable to the reasoning that the deceased was walking along the railway track at Balabhgarh, which is far away from Mathura as well as from Ferozepur. It is also to be noticed that the left leg of the deceased was amputated and he was having artificial leg which was found during the inquest proceeding of the General Railway Police (GRP). The inquest proceeding of the GRP shows that there was injury on the backside of the head of the deceased and there were also some bruises on the other part of the body. The GRP as well as the post mortem report shows that the deceased died due to railway accident. Therefore, the involvement of railways is there. Now, the only question left for consideration is as to whether the deceased fell from the train or not.;