No ticket on man who died in train fall doesn’t make him ticketless traveller: HC

Court grants deceased’s mother ₹4 lakh in compensation, holding that the Railway Accident Claims Tribunal erred in rejecting her claim solely because no valid railway ticket was found on his body

Mumbai: Sixteen years after a 25-year-old call centre employee died after falling off a local train, the Bombay High Court has granted his mother ₹4 lakh in compensation, holding that the Railway Accident Claims Tribunal (RACT) erred in rejecting her claim solely because no valid railway ticket was found on his body.

The high court granted the deceased’s mother ₹4 lakh in compensation, holding that the Railway Accident Claims Tribunal erred in rejecting her claim solely because no valid railway ticket was found on his body.

The court said the absence of a ticket on the man’s body would not, by itself, mean he was a ticketless traveller, as inferrred by the RACT. It also noted that his mother’s claim that his monthly season ticket was lost after he fell off the train had gone “entirely unchallenged”.

The incident dates back to July 21, 2010, when Umer Moulali Hubballi was travelling by local train from his home in Vasai (West) to his office in Mira Road. At about 8.55am, he accidentally fell from the moving train and died of a grievous head injury.

In April 2014, the RACT rejected his mother Hushna Bannu Moulali’s claim for compensation, observing that he was not a bona fide railway passenger since no railway ticket was found on his body.

Hushna challenged the order in the high court in 2015. Appearing for her, advocate Sainand Chaugule argued that she had filed an affidavit of evidence stating that her son held a valid monthly season ticket, and that this evidence remained uncontroverted. Claiming that her son was a bona fide railway passenger, Hushna’s affidavit stated that the valid monthly season ticket with which he was travelling was lost since he accidentally fell from the running train.

The railways, however, argued that while ₹115 in cash and lunch coupons were found on Umer’s body, no valid railway ticket was recovered. It said that the panchnama “was evidence enough to establish that the deceased was a ticketless traveller” and not a “passenger” as defined under the Railways Act. The railways also argued that Umer’s body was found on platform No. 3 at the Vasai railway station, which belied his mother’s claim that he was travelling from Vasai to Mira Road, as platform No. 3 was in the opposite direction.

In his order, justice Arif Doctor said that while no ticket was found on Umer’s body, this fact alone “would not be sufficient to dismiss a claim for compensation if the claimant files an affidavit of the relevant facts showing that the deceased was a bona fide passenger”.

The burden, the court said, would then shift to the railways to rebut Umer’s mother’s case by establishing that he was not a bona fide passenger. The court noted that the railways had neither cross-examined Umer’s mother nor provided any evidence to establish that he was a ticketless traveller.

“In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the claim cannot be rejected on the basis of conjectures, assumptions, or a hypothetical alternative explanation unsupported by the record,” justice Doctor observed in his order of July 2. He ordered the railways to pay the compensation to Hushna with 9% annual interest from the date of the incident in 2010, within eight weeks.

Speaking to HT on Friday, Hushna, now 60, said, “My son’s death was devastating for us and the years after that have been very hard.” Umer was the second of her three children.

“I injured both my legs in a fall in 2019, and I now walk with a stick. My husband, aged 68, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, and we hope this compensation amount will help us in getting him treated,” she added.