Allowed

Smt Paramanik Upasi and Ors. v. the Union of India through the General Manager South Eastern Railway

Jharkhand HC14 Jun 2017MA/234/2013

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

A Division Bench of the High Court of Jharkhand modified the Railway Claims Tribunal's award from Rs. 2.00 lakhs to Rs. 4.00 lakhs in a compensation matter for the death of a railway passenger, holding that the statutory rate under the Railway Act and related Rules could not be waived.

What did the court decide?

The order of the Railway Claims Tribunal dated 05.02.2013 was modified; the Railway is directed to pay Rs. 4.00 lakhs with interest at 9% p.a.

Smt Paramanik Upasi and Ors. Vs the Union… — Civil Procedure and Limitation | Jharkhand HC (2017)

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI

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M.A. No.234 of 2013 With I.A.NO.8671 of 2013

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1. Smt. Paramanik Upasi, s/o late Gurupado Paramanik

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2. Dinbandhu Paramanik, s/o late Gurupado Paramanik

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3. Vikash Paramanik, s/o late Gurupado Paramanik.

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All r/o village Suisa Deavali, P.O.Aatna,P.S.Bagmundi, DistrictPurulia(West Bengal).

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…. . Appellants.

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Versus

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The Union of India through the General Manager, South Eastern Railway, 14 Strand Road, P.O.P.S.& District-Kolkata-700001.

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…. Respondents.

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----CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AMITAV K.GUPT A

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-For the Appellants : Mr. Arvind Kumar Mehta. Advocate. For the Respondent : M/s.Ram Nivas Roy, Advocate.

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----

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05/14.06.2017 I.A.NO.8671/2013

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This interlocutory application has been filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act for condoning the delay of 107 days in preferring the present Misc. Appeal.

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Learned counsel on behalf of the respondent has not

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raised any serious objection.

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Heard. Being satisfied with the reasons assigned in paras 3 and 4 of the supporting affidavit, sufficient cause and reasonable explanation is made out, accordingly, the delay is condoned.

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I.A.NO.8671/2013 is allowed and disposed off.

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M.A. No.234 of 2013

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The present appeal has been directed against the order dated 05.02.2013 passed in Case no.OA(IIU)/RNC/2010/0069 by the learned Member(Technical) of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Ranchi Bench at Ranchi whereby the Tribunal has awarded a sum of Rs.2.00 lakhs as compensation.

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2 . Learned counsel for the appellants has submitted that the deceased-Gurupado Paramanik died on 29.02.2008 due to accidental fall while travelling on train no.308 DN. from Suisa to Chandil railway station. It is argued by the learned counsel that while deciding all the issues in favour of the claimants, who are the wife and son of the deceased, the Claim Tribunal, without assigning any reason, awarded only Rs.2.00 lakhs as compensation whereas as per the schedule of Railway Accidents and

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Untoward Incident(Compensation) Rules, 1990 Rs.4,00,000/- (four lakhs) is the statutory liability to be paid by the Railways in case of death of a bonafide passenger due to untoward incident, which cannot be waived hence the order for payment of Rs.2.00 lakhs only is against the mandate of law of the statute.

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3. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondent/Railways has supported the impugned judgment and submitted that the learned Tribunal has exercised its discretion and while deciding issue no.3 held that there is no concrete evidence regarding untoward incident therefore the award does not suffers from any infirmity.

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4 . Heard. It is evident from the impugned order/judgment that the deceased, Gurupado Paramanik was a bonafide passenger travelling on a valid ticket and he died on account of fall from the running train. In view of the mandate of law statutory liability is on the Railway to pay compensation under Section 124 A of the Railway Act,1989 and the amount of compensation has been prescribed under the Schedule of Rule 4 of Railway Accidents and Untoward Incident(Compensation) Rules, 1990 which is Rs.4,00,000/-(four lakhs) in case of death. The Tribunal has failed to appreciate the mandate of law and awarded only Rs.2.00 lakhs/-.

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5 . Accordingly, the order dated 05.02.2013 passed by the Tribunal is modified and the respondent/Railway is directed to pay a sum of Rs.4,00,000(four lakhs) to the claimants/appellants with interest @ 9% p.a from the date of filing of the application less the amount, if any paid, till the date of realisation. The outstanding amount shall be paid within three months from the date of receipt of this order.

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6 . In the result, the appeal is allowed and the judgment/ward is modified to the extent as indicated hereinabove.

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(Amitav K. Gupta,J)

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Biswas.

Smt Paramanik Upasi and Ors. v. the Union of India through the General Manager South Eastern Railway

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Smt Paramanik Upasi and Ors. v. the Union of India through the General Manager South Eastern Railway

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

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Statutes considered

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