Railways must pay if passenger falls off train, rules HC

Mumbai, April 26

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The Bombay High Court has observed that local trains are the lifeline of Mumbai and if a person falls and suffers injuries while trying to board an overcrowded train, it will fall within the ambit of an “untoward incident” and compensation will have to be paid by the Railways.

A single Bench of Justice Bharati Dangre directed the Western Railways to pay Rs 3 lakh to a 75-year-old man who suffered injuries to his leg after falling off an overcrowded local train.

A copy of the order dated April 12 was made available on Tuesday.

The Western Railways argued that the case did not fall under the provisions of section 124(A) of the Railways Act, which states that compensation has to be paid in cases of untoward incidents. It claimed that the petitioner, Nitin Hundiwala, had tried to board a moving train.

Justice Dangre, however, refused to accept the Railways’ argument and noted that the present case clearly fell within the situation covered by “untoward incident” as per section 124(A) of the Act.