The Jharkhand High Court has directed Indian Railways to pay Rs 8 lakh to the family of a man who died after falling from an overcrowded passenger train, ruling that the absence of a ticket could not by itself deny compensation.
Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi passed the order on Tuesday while hearing an appeal filed by Baijanti Gope against a Railway Claims Tribunal decision dated September 12, 2023. The tribunal had rejected her compensation claim after no railway ticket was recovered from the body of her husband, Banmali Gope.
Setting aside the tribunal’s order, the High Court said the Railways should not adopt a “hyper-technical” approach while deciding compensation claims. It observed that millions of people depend on trains because they cannot afford air travel or private vehicles, and that a narrow interpretation of the Railway Act could deprive victims, particularly poor and underprivileged passengers, of compensation.
Banmali Gope was travelling on the Tata-Barbil passenger train from Jhinkpani to Kendposi in West Singhbhum on September 1, 2017. According to the court’s findings, the train was overcrowded and Gope was standing near the door when he was pushed out during jostling among passengers.
The court noted that Gope’s body was cut up in the accident and held that, in those circumstances, the absence of a ticket could not be treated as a reason to reject the claim. Witnesses had been examined during the proceedings, and the court found no evidence that he had died by suicide, while committing a criminal act or from natural causes.
The High Court held that Gope was a bona fide passenger and that his death resulted from an “untoward incident” caused by an accidental fall from the train. Under the ruling, the family is to receive Rs 8 lakh in compensation from Indian Railways.
The case places the treatment of ticket evidence in railway accident claims at the centre of the court’s decision. It also records the court’s concern that compensation rules should account for the circumstances of accidents and the dependence of low-income passengers on railway services. The order overturned the tribunal’s earlier rejection of the claim and directed payment to Gope’s family.
