The Orissa High Court has directed the South Eastern Railway to pay ₹8 lakh as compensation to the parents of a man who died after falling from a passenger train, rejecting the railway’s claim that the man had died by suicide.
The court said his death was an “untoward incident” under the Railways Act.
Justice Sanjeeb K Panigrahi set aside a 2021 order of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Bhubaneswar, which rejected the compensation plea filed by the man’s parents, observing that the tribunal’s finding that their son was not a bona fide passenger was “conjectural and unsustainable.”
The deceased was travelling from Manjuri Road to Jaleswar on August 20, 2011, when he fell from the JJKR–Kharagpur passenger train between Nilgiri Road and Balasore stations.
His personal belongings such as a mobile phone and ATM cards, were found on his mutilated body found later on the tracks, but no ticket was recovered.
While the railways claimed he had committed suicide and that the journey ticket later produced by his parents was fabricated, the court held that the burden lay with the administration to prove such a claim and that they had failed to do so.
“Mere non-recovery of a ticket cannot disprove bona fide travel. Articles are often lost or destroyed in fatal mishaps,” the court noted, adding that the railways’ theory of suicide had no evidentiary support.
Calling the tribunal’s approach “hyper-technical” in a welfare legislation, the judge said once an untoward incident is established, the railways’ liability is strict unless it proves exceptions like suicide or intoxication.
The court ordered the railways to pay the compensation amount of ₹8 lakh with 6% annual interest from the date of filing the claim, to be cleared within eight weeks.
