Kerala - Kochi   

Tribunal awards compensation

Kochi: The Railway Claims Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench, on Thursday awarded Rs.4 lakh as compensation to a parent whose son died after a fall from a running train.

The tribunal headed by E. Rajaraman also directed the Railways to pay the parents 9 per cent interest on the compensation amount

In their application, C.J. Thomas and his wife said their son had died from a fall while travelling in the Mangalore- Chennai mail in 1991. They said he fell from the running train while washing his face at the wash basin in the train.

The Railways contended that the provision for paying compensation for “untoward incident” as laid down in Section 123(c) of the Railways Act could not be invoked for paying compensation for the death of a passenger which occurred in May 1991 as the new statute came into force with effect from August 1, 1994, by an amendment to the Railway Act 1989.

The tribunal held that as per the section, an accidental fall of a passenger from a train was an untoward incident. The tribunal cited a Kerala High Court judgement which ruled that the amended provision had been given retrospective effect.

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