Not A Case Of Untoward Incident: Delhi HC Upholds Dismissal Of Claim Petition Filed Under Railways Act

The present is a case where three dead bodies were found at the spot making it difficult to believe that all three of them had accidently fallen from a moving train at the same time.

In a nutshell, a claim petition was filed by first appellant ‘Kalpana Devi’ along with other dependants, thereby alleging that her husband (deceased) had died in an ‘untoward incident’. It was claimed that the deceased purchased a valid 2nd class superfast railway ticket for travel from Agra Cantt. to Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station. When on board, the train reached Hari Nagar Ashram, the deceased accidently fell down from the moving train and died on the spot, when he was standing at the door of the compartment.

As the journey ticket was not recovered, the Railway Tribunal concluded that the deceased was not a bonafide passenger, and further, that death had not occurred accidently due to fall from the moving train.

The Single Judge Manoj Kumar Ohri found from the perusal of the case records that first information about the incident came to be recorded vide GD Entry wherein it was mentioned that one person was lying run over on the Ashram railway bridge. Another GD Entry in fact, recorded that three dead bodies were lying at the UP- line of Nizamuddin - Tughlakabad Section in badly mutilated condition.

The Court observed that there was no eye-witness to the incident, and in fact, the appellants had also not stated that they witnessed the deceased buying the tickets or boarding the train.

“Secondly, the post-mortem report noted multiple crush injuries, fracture of skull bones and fracture of pelvis on both sides. The brain matter was found to be mostly absent. The cause of death was recorded as ‘a result of combined effects of cranio cerebral damage and shock’, added the Court.

Thus, the Bench held, "The present is a case where three dead bodies were found at the spot making it difficult to believe that all three of them had accidently fallen from a moving train at the same time. Coupled with the facts that no journey ticket was found, that the first information also recorded to the effect that the deceased had been run over, as well as the postmortem report, this Court concurs with the Tribunal that the appellants have failed to make out a case of ‘untoward incident’ as defined under Section 123(c) of the Railways Act."

Accordingly, the High Court confirmed the order of the Railway Tribunal and dismissed the appeal.