NEW RAY OF HOPE FOR RAILWAY ACCIDENT SURVIVORS AS SUPREME COURT MANDATES INCREASED COMPENSATION

Legal News by - EKTA TRIPATHI (This News was written by her during her Internship)

The accountability of Railways related to train accidents is defined under Section 124 of the Railways Act ,1989. It states when the railway is functioning and in that period of time, an accident occurs, it being crash between the trains, whether one train is carrying passengers,or the derailment or any accident of the part of the train,then whether or not any negligence,intentional act or anything that results in the accident ,the railway authorities will be held liable to compensate or give the damages incurred by the passengers in the coach or the part of train that incurred the damage.

And, Railways is only responsible to provide the compensation for- the death of the passenger because of the accident, some personal injuries,loss or decay of valuables of passengers that are with them when the accident occured.

Section-124 of Railways Act,1989 also states that railway authorities should compensate the legitimate rail passengers for death or serious injuries.

The incident date is the date to claim for the compensation under this provision.

According to this section, “passengers” comprises of - A railway employee, who is on duty; or a person who has bought the ticket of the train for travelling or the person who has bought the platform ticket and became the victim of the accident.

Legitimate Rail Passengers can be understood as- the mere presence on the site of accident or on the premises of the railway will not amount to compensation.

In the case of ,Doli Rani Saha Versus Union of India Supreme Court repeated that if in railway accidents the compensation claimed by the claimant is less than the prescribed compensation,as per the date of the decision, then they are authorized to get the higher amount.

The claimant claimed 4 Lakhs as the compensation(aaplicable on the date of the incident,2003) in this case as per the Schedule I of Railways Accident(Compensation) Rules,1990.However, the railway increased the amount to 8Lakhs in 2016.

In furtherance of the judgement of the case, Union of India vs Rina Devi ,theSupreme Court said that when the compensation disposed on the date of award is higher than the compensation relevant on the date of the incident, then the victim would be entitled to receive higher compensation. Hence, the amount of Rs. 8 Lakhs was justified by the court.

The Apex Court also observed that non-recovery of train ticket from the victim’s body merely does not negate the legitimacy of the passenger.

The Burden of proof,according to courts goes to Railways that the victim or dependants of victim was not travelling, once the claimant submits the affidavit based on investigation reports proving that the passanger was a legitimate passenger on the train and his death was caused by falling from the running train.

In this present Case if we see, the person claiming has given the affidavit focusing on relevant circumstance and also cited the report of respondent which states that the victim was boarded the train when he fell and as a result he died.

Consequently, there are no enough proofs to assume that the dead was a legitimate passenger on the train in question.

The court concluded that the dead person was a legitimate passenger on the train in question and he has acquired serious injuries resulting death,due to falling from train which is found in the post-mortem and investigation report about the injuries.The appellant is ultimately entitled to compensation.

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