Vineeta and 2 Others vs U.O.I. Representated by General Manager North Central Railway Allahabad — Allahabad HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

Vineeta and 2 Others vs U.O.I. Representated by General Manager North Central Railway Allahabad — Allahabad HC (2025) — LawSathi Research

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Admission-stage order only: appeal admitted as within time; notice to respondent ordered (returnable at an early date through the district concerned); steps to be taken within a week; trial court record summoned; case to be listed on 11.11.2025 as fresh. Merits of the challenge to the Tribunal's rejection not adjudicated at this stage.

Ratio / Principle

The appeal is within time.

Key takeaways

The first appeal from order is admitted.ratio¶16
Notice is to be issued to the respondent, returnable at an early date through the district concerned.ratio¶17
The trial court record is to be summoned.ratio¶19

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT (LUCKNOW BENCH), COURT NO. 19 - First Appeal From Order No. 407 of 2025 (Vineeta and 2 others v. U.O.I., represented by General Manager, North Central Railway Allahabad / Central Railway Allahabad), decided on October 10, 2025 by Hon'ble Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra, J. Appeal preferred under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 and Chapter IX of the High Court Rules against the judgement and order dated 11.07.2025 of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Lucknow Bench (Case No. OA/II/U/560/2014), whereby the claim petition was rejected. Counsel for appellants (Manish Kumar Srivastava, Chandra Prakash Singh, Saroj Kumari) argued the Tribunal wrongly rejected the claim on a hyper-technical approach, that the deceased was a bona fide passenger who met an untoward incident under Section 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989, that the initial burden stood discharged, that the railway adduced no evidence relying only on the DRM report, and cited Union of India v. Rina Devi (Civil Appeal No. 4945 of 2018, dated 09.05.2018) and Shahnaz Begum v. Union of India, 2017 (4) ADJ 663 (DB) (LB). The Court held the appeal within time, admitted it, ordered notice to the respondent through the district concerned, steps within a week, summons of the trial court record, and fresh listing on 11.11.2025. Merits left open; the precedents were cited by counsel and not yet endorsed by this Court.

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD LUCKNOW

FIRST APPEAL FROM ORDER No. - 407 of 2025

Vineeta And 2 Others

.....Appellant(s)

Versus

U.O.I. Representated By General Manager North Central Railway Allahabad

Central Railway Allahabad .....Respondent(s) Counsel for Appellant(s) : Manish Kumar Srivastava, Chandra Prakash Singh, Saroj Kumari Counsel for Respondent(s) :

Court No. - 19

HON'BLE RAM MANOHAR NARAYAN MISHRA, J.

Heard learned counsel for the appellants and perused the record.

The instant FAFO has been preferred under Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 as well as Under Chapter IX of the High Court Rules assailing the judgement and order dated 11.07.2025 passed in Case No.OA/II/U/560/2014 by the Railway Claims Tribunal, Lucknow Bench, Lucknow, whereby the claim petition has been rejected.

Learned counsel for the appellant submits that learned Tribunal has wrongly rejected the claim of the appellants on hyper-technical approach. The impugned judgement is against the settled law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court in case of Union of India versus Rina Devi, dated 09.05.2018 passed in Civil Appeal No.4945 of 2018 and Hon'ble this Court in case of Shahnaz Begum and others versus Union of India reported in 2017 (4) ADJ 663 (DB) (LB) . The railway has not adduced any evidence in defence of the claim and only placed reliance on report of DRM and this is not a piece of evidence inasmuch as only on the basis of postmortem report, it cannot be held that the deceased was over run by a train. The deceased was in fact a bonafide passenger and the claimant had discharged the initial burden of proving the case of untoward incident as defined under Section 124-A of the Railways Act, 1989.

The appeal is within time.

FAFO No. 407 of 2025

2

Admit.

Issue notice to the respondent returnable at an early date through district concerned.

Steps be taken within a week.

Summon the trial court record.

List this case on 11.11.2025 as fresh.

(Ram Manohar Narayan Mishra,J.)

October 10, 2025

KR

Digitally signed by :- RABINDRA KUMAR High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench