Jharkhand High Court awards Rs 8 lakh for a fall from a crowded train, holding welfare law must be read liberally

27 October 2026

The Jharkhand High Court has awarded Rs 8 lakh with six per cent yearly interest to the family of a man who fell from a crowded passenger train and died. Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi allowed an appeal under Section 23(1) of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 against the Tribunal's dismissal of the claim. No ticket was recovered from the body, but the brother testified that he had bought it and the Railways did not cross-examine him on that point. The Court held the deceased was a bona fide passenger, that a fall caused by jostling is an accidental fall and therefore an untoward incident under Section 124A of the Railways Act, and that none of the statutory exceptions in its proviso applied. The Railways had also failed to place on record the Divisional Railway Manager's report that Rule 13 calls for, under the Railway Passengers (Manner of Investigation of Untoward Incidents) Rules, 2003. Welfare legislation, the Court said, must be read liberally, and a restrictive reading would deprive the poor.