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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
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Railways liable to pay relief for accidental fall: Supreme Court

J. Venkatesan

Rejects Centre’s appeal against Kerala High Court ruling

New Delhi: If a passenger falls on the track while boarding a moving train and is killed the railways is liable to pay compensation to the victim’s family even though there was no fault on its part, the Supreme Court held on Monday.

Giving this ruling, a Bench of Justice H.K. Sema and Justice Markandey Katju said: “In our opinion, if we adopt a restrictive meaning to the expression ‘accidental falling of a passenger’ from a train in Section 123(c) of the Railways Act, we will be depriving a large number of railway passengers of compensation in railway accidents.”

Writing the judgment, Justice Katju said: “It is well known that in our country there are crores of people who travel by railway trains since everybody cannot afford travel by air or in a private car. By giving a restrictive and narrow meaning to the expression we will be depriving a large number of victims of train accidents (particularly poor and middle class people) from getting compensation under the Railways Act.”

The Bench said: “In our opinion, the expression ‘accidental falling of a passenger’ from a train carrying passengers includes accidents when a bona fide passenger i.e. a passenger travelling with a valid ticket or pass is trying to enter into a railway train and falls down during the process.”

In the instant case a claim petition was filed before the Railway Claims Tribunal, Ernakulam Bench by the husband, Prabhakaran Vijayakumar, of one Abja who died on May 23, 1996 in a train accident at Varkala Railway station. The Claims Tribunal disallowed the claim, but the Kerala High Court awarded Rs. 2 lakh compensation to the family with 12 per cent interest from the date of the petition till the date the payment was granted. The Union of India filed an appeal.

Dismissing it, the Bench said: “There is no dispute that Smt. Abja was a bona fide passenger holding a second class season ticket and an identity card issued by the Southern Railway. We are of the opinion that it will not legally make any difference whether the deceased was actually inside the train when she fell down or whether she was only trying to get into the train when she fell down. In our opinion in either case it amounts to an ‘accidental falling of a passenger from a train carrying passengers.’ Hence, it is an ‘untoward incident’ as defined in Section 123(c) of the Railways Act.”

The Bench said: “Since the provision for compensation in the Railways Act is a beneficial piece of legislation, in our opinion, it should receive a liberal and wider interpretation and not a narrow and technical one.”

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