Railway authorities must consider land-loser appointment claims by reasoned order, leaving the merits open.

The applicants stated that the Railways acquired Applicant No. 1’s land for the Deshpran–Nandigram Special Railway Project and issued him a land-loser certificate.

Applicant No. 1 submitted a representation dated 8 January 2026 seeking such appointment for his son.

Before the Tribunal, the applicants sought an order for consideration of that representation in light of specified Calcutta High Court judgments and a prior Tribunal order; the respondents did not object to consideration of the representation in accordance with the rules.

Whether the respondents should be directed to consider and decide the applicants’ pending representation for appointment under the land-loser category.

Whether the Tribunal should determine the applicants’ substantive entitlement to appointment at this stage.

Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, provided the basis for the applicants’ application to the Tribunal.

Rule 4(5)(a) of the CAT (Procedure) Rules, 1987, governed the applicants’ request to prosecute the matter jointly, which the Tribunal allowed.

The Tribunal directed the competent authority to consider the representation in light of Railway Board Circular RBE 99/2010, the Calcutta High Court’s judgments in Union of India v. Jahangir Chowdhury (WPCT 28 of 2021) and Union of India v. Chandi Das Khan (WPCT 75 of 2020), and the Tribunal’s order in OA/350/319/2021.

The applicants confined their requested relief to consideration of their pending representation, and the respondents raised no objection to its consideration in accordance with the rules.

The Tribunal therefore directed the competent authority to decide the representation by applying the identified judgments and prior order, and to communicate its decision through a reasoned and speaking order. It expressly left all merits open for the authority’s consideration.

It made no finding on the applicants’ entitlement to appointment, left all points open, and disposed of both the OA and the MA without costs.