Observing that death or injury caused in the course of boarding or de-boarding train is an untoward incident, the High Court of Karnataka has awarded a compensation of ₹8 lakh to the legal heirs of an elderly woman, who had died while alighting a train at Channapatna railway station after realising that she had boarded a wrong train.
Justice H.P. Sandesh passed the order while allowing a petition filed by the legal heirs of Jayamma, who had died at the railway station on February 22, 2014.
Jayamma, along with her sister Rathnamma ,had purchased tickets to go to Mysuru on the Tirupati-Mysuru passenger train. However, by mistake, they boarded the Tuticorin express train. On releasing this, the duo alighted from that train during which Jayamma fell on the platform and died on the spot, while her sister managed to alight safely.
What the Tribunal said
The Railway Claims Tribunal in 2016 had rejected the claim while holding that the cause for the death was due to “self-inflicted injuries” under Section 124A of the Indian Railways Act, 1989. The Tribunal, though had accepted that Jayamma was a “bonafide passenger,” it had said that incident occurred due to Jayamma’s “deliberate act of jumping from a moving train” instead of adopting safe options of either getting down at the next stop or pulling the chain meant for emergency stoppage of the train.
However, it was argued before the High Court on behalf of the claimants that when the sisters learnt that they boarded a wrong train, they alighted from the train, and at that moment the train might have just started, due to which the deceased lost her balance and accidentally fell down from the train sustaining fatal injuries.
Taking note of the fact that the sister of Jayamma had safely alighted from the train, the High Court said that the Tribunal erroneously concluded that it was a deliberate act of jumping from the moving train and causing self-inflicted injuries.
The High Court said that the incident of the fatal fall of Jayamma is an “untoward incident” of “accidental falling of any passenger from a train carrying passengers” as defined under Section 123 of the IR Act and the railway administration is liable to pay compensation under Section 124A of the Act.
