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The High Court of Bombay directed the Central Railways to pay a sum of Rs. 8 lakhs to the legal heirs of the deceased even though he had died due to his own negligence. The cause of action of the case arose the deceased, Arjun Gawande purchased 2 railway tickets to Murtizapur from Akola Railway station. He had purchased the said tickets i.e. one was from Akola to Murtizapur and the another was from Akola to Shegaon. The deceased boarded the Bhuvaneshwar Express which was from Kurla and while alighting from the train, he fell down accidentally and died. When the legal heirs filed a claim petition before the Railways Claims Tribunal, the tribunal rejected the petition stating that the deceased purchased tickets from Akola to Murtizapur and Akola from Shegaon for a ‘general train’ but he had boarded Bhuvanehwar Express which was an ‘express train.’
The tribunal also claimed that the train which he had boarded stops neither at Murtizapur nor at Badnera. Furthermore, the deceased alighted at Badnera where the train wouldn’t stop. Thus, the tribunal said that the incident was wholly due to the deceased’s own fault/negligence. Thus, the counsel for the Central Railways contented that the deceased purchased the tickets and boarded a train knowing it would not reach the required destination. He also held that it was not an untoward incident u/s 123(c) of the Railways Act, 1989. And further submitted that the railways are not liable to pay compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased. The counsel for appellants in support of his arguments relied on the matter of UOI V. Anuradha and another which claimed “that even though the deceased boarded wrong train having a valid ticket, died while alighting the train the ground cannot be rejected.” The counsel also relied on various other judgments given by the Hon’ble SC in support of his arguments.
Thus, the bench Justice MG Giratkar of the Nagpur Bench, Bombay HC relied on the SC verdicts and noted that the Tribunal’s reasoning for the deceased boarded in the wrong train is not sustainable. Thus, the Court directed the Central Railways to pay Rs. 8L within 12 weeks of the said order.
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