Verified journey tickets and contemporaneous records establish bona fide passenger status and an untoward incident.

The appellants challenged the judgment dated 23 August 2022 of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Principal Bench, Delhi, which dismissed their claim for compensation concerning the death of Sunder Singh.

The appellants alleged that, on 26 July 2015, Sunder Singh was travelling from Agra Cantt. to Mathura Junction on a valid journey ticket and accidentally fell from a running train near Mathura Junction, suffering fatal injuries while being taken to hospital.

The Tribunal held that he was not a bona fide passenger and that the occurrence was not an “untoward incident” under the Railways Act, 1989.

Before the High Court, the appellants relied on the original journey ticket, the Station Master’s Memo, the HDTC Diary and the DRM report, while the Railways relied principally on the testimony of an alleged eyewitness and the absence of the ticket from the inquest records.

Whether the deceased was a bona fide passenger for the purposes of claiming compensation under the applicable railway law.

Whether the deceased’s fall from the train constituted an “untoward incident” under the Railways Act, 1989, or was excluded because it resulted from a deliberate or self-inflicted act.

Whether the Tribunal’s dismissal of the claim application was legally sustainable.

The appeal was governed by Section 23 of the Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987, which permits an appeal to the High Court against an order of the Railway Claims Tribunal.

The Court applied the provisions of the Railways Act, 1989 concerning compensation for an “untoward incident” and the requirement that the deceased be a bona fide passenger.

Relying on Lata v. Union of India, 2026 SCC OnLine SC 1350, reaffirming Union of India v. Rina Devi, (2019) 3 SCC 572, the Court held that the claimants’ initial burden to establish bona fide travel is not onerous; once attendant circumstances and a valid ticket are shown, the burden shifts to the Railways to rebut the claim through cogent evidence.

The Court also relied on Sh. Prempal Singh v. Union of India, 2018 SCC OnLine Del 9571, which held that a passenger travelling alone cannot reasonably be expected to preserve evidence concerning the precise details of the journey, particularly when a valid ticket is established.

The High Court held that the deceased’s status as a bona fide passenger was established because the original journey ticket bearing No. 91103892 had been produced and the Railway Administration itself had verified its issuance by the Booking Supervisor, Agra Cantt., on 26 July 2015.

The ticket’s absence from the panchnama or inquest proceedings indicated, at most, non-recovery and did not establish subsequent fabrication, particularly when the Railways led no evidence that the ticket was forged or unrelated to the deceased.

On the nature of the occurrence, the contemporaneous Station Master’s Memo and HDTC Diary merely recorded that the deceased had fallen from the train; neither document suggested a deliberate jump or an intention to cause self-injury.

The RPF report’s narrative also stated that he slipped while getting down, while its later attribution of negligence was only an opinion and could not outweigh the contemporaneous records.

The alleged eyewitness’s account was treated as unreliable because it was recorded more than six years after the incident, was unsupported by any contemporaneous statement or recovery memo, and introduced for the first time an assertion that the deceased had no ticket and had deliberately attempted to alight from a running train.

Accordingly, the evidence did not establish a deliberate or self-inflicted act sufficient to exclude the occurrence from the definition of an “untoward incident”.

The matter was remanded to the Railway Claims Tribunal to assess the compensation payable in accordance with law and to direct disbursement by the concerned authorities within two months of receiving the High Court’s order.

The matter was directed to be listed before the Tribunal on 20 August 2026.