IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA MA No.218 of 2008 UNION OF INDIA THROUGH THE GENERAL MANAGER, NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY, GORAKHPUR (U.P.) .................. RESPONDENT ........ APPELLANT Versus JAGESHWAR SAH, SON OF LATE BABU SAH, RESIDENT OF VILLAGE- GANGAPUR, P.S.-PUSHA, DISTRICT-SAMASTIPUR. ................ APPELLANT ......... RESPONDENT ----------- 4 30.4.2009 Heard Mr. Ahsanuddin Amanullah, counsel for the appellant. The appellant disputed the death of one Lal Babu Sah. The appellant disputed the liability of payment of compensation of death basically by taking a plea that the said Lal Babu Sah was mentally unstable person and therefore, when his dead body was detected in the village itself, it could not be said that his death had taken place by Railway accident by way of untoward accident in terms of Section 124A of the Railways Act. Mr. Amanullah in this context had tried to explain that basically it was not for the Railways to prove because it was well known fact that Lal Babu Sah was an insane person which also got confirmed from certain statement of the villagers before the police. He would, therefore, submit that the approach of the Tribunal in allowing claim of 2 compensation only on the ground that the Railways did not discharge the onus of Lal Babu Sah, being a mentally sound person, is definitely erroneous both on fact and in law. This Court would not be in a position to accept such submission of learned counsel for the appellant for a simple reason that if a plea was taken in defence by the Railways for denying its liability of payment of compensation, such plea was to be proved to the hilt by adducing evidence. This Court on perusal of the oral and documentary evidence laid by the parties is fully satisfied that the Railways had not even made an effort to prove that Lal Babu Sah was a mentally infirm person. The only plea taken by the Railway in its written statement was that the Stationmaster was aware about such insanity of Lal Babu Sah but when the said Stationmaster appeared for deposition, he had straightway denied this aspect as is apparent from the appreciation of the evidence of the defence witnesses, the said Stationmaster, in paragraph no.15 of the impugned judgment. Once the plea of the Railways for the insanity of 3 Lal Babu Sah would fail, the other part of the evidence laid by the claimant through oral evidence as well as five persons and the documentary evidence would definitely lead to one and only one conclusion that such death had taken place in an accident met by him in course of his rail journey. This is because not only the co-passenger, the father traveling with the deceased but others also accompanying him in the same train, had supported the entire story of traveling as also accidental fall of the deceased. That being so, there would be no difficulty in upholding the second part of the findings of the Tribunal as with regard to the death on account of untoward accident. In such a situation, the last remaining plea of the counsel for the appellant that the deceased was not a bonafide person because no ticket was produced has to be only noted for its being rejected. There were fellow passengers who were traveling with him and all of them have taken a specific plea of purchase of ticket and therefore, when they were subjected to cross-examination and yet could 4 not be shaken from their statement in examination in chief, it cannot be said that merely because the ticket in question was not produced by the father of the deceased or could not be recovered from the dead body of the deceased will lead to an automatic inference that the deceased was traveling without an authorized ticket so as to be held as a non-bonafide passenger. It is not the requirement of law that no compensation will be payable unless the ticket of the deceased is produced. That being so, this Court would not find any merit in this appeal which must be and is hereby dismissed with a direction to the appellant to pay the entire amount in the manner prescribed in the impugned order within a period of one month from the date of receipt/production of a copy of this order. Rsh (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)