Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

5 "passenger" means a person travelling with a valid pass or ticket;

KUMAR VATS Signing Date:12.12.2023 20:14:18 clearly stated that the deceased had fallen down from the moving train with a valid ticket and consequently died.

9. The evidence brought on the record clearly bring out that on 17.05.14, there was no other train for New Delhi except Kashi Vishwanath Express before 12:00AM, and therefore, in all probabilities the deceased was constrained to board the train at 12:40AM. There was led no evidence before the RCT that the schedule departure of the train was at 12:05 hours. There was neither any material placed on the record by the Railways nor there was raised any query by learned RCT so as to arrive at a finding that the train was not running late, and therefore, the deceased could not have boarded the train. There is no case of the respondent that that deceased was not entitled to board an Express or Superfast train either. Therefore, the findings recorded by the learned RCT that the deceased was not having a valid rail ticket is patently perverse and can not be sustained in law. Reference can be invited to decision in Union of India v. Radha Devi 6 where it was held that "where the deceased in fact had purchased a railway ticket and was travelling as per the railway ticket, that makes him a bonafide passenger". In another case Union of India v. Prabhakaran Vijaya Kumar,7, it was held that "In our opinion, the expression „accidental falling of a passenger from a train carrying passengers‟ includes accidents when a bona fide passenger, i.e., a passenger travelling with a valid ticket or pass is trying to enter into a railway train and falls down during the process. In other words, a purposive, and not literal, interpretation should be given to the expression."