The Bombay high court ordered the Western Railway on Monday to pay Rs 4 lakh in compensation to a Juhu mother, whose son died after falling off a moving local train in May 2010. The HC overruled the decision of a Railway Claims Tribunal, which had turned down the mother’s plea.
A bench of Justice Nizamoodin Jamadar was hearing a plea filed by one Raziya Abdul Kadir Shaikh, a resident of Shastri Nagar in suburban Juhu.
As per Raziya, her son Abdul Salam Kadir Shaikh had boarded a train from Andheri station to travel to Dadar. However, while the train was moving, Abdul fell off from the crowded train, being pushed by passengers. She even furnished the ticket for second class travel that her son had purchased before boarding the local train.
However, the Western Railways trashed this contention and claimed that Abdul wasn’t a ‘bona fide’ passenger but had met with accident while crossing the railway tracks.
Justice Jamadar noted the autopsy report which stated that Abdul’s head was cut into two pieces and that he had some abrasions on the rest of the parts of his body.
“Thus, it becomes abundantly clear that the deceased suffered a fatal injury to his head. Indisputably, the deceased had multiple abrasions all over the body. However, what is conspicuous by its absence is any other grievous or fracture injury to the rest of the body,” the judge noted, adding, “This factor assumes critical significance in evaluating Raziya’s claim that her son fell off while travelling on a train carrying passengers and suffered the head injury.”
Accordingly, the judge calculated compensation to the tune of Rs 4 lakh at an interest rate of 8 per cent per annum.
