Karnataka High Court asks Railway tribunal to be magnanimous in settling claims

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has said that the Railway Claims Tribunal should be magnanimous while considering the claim applications and should not reject them solely on technical grounds. Justice Hanchate Sanjeevkumar said this while remanding the claim application filed by family members of a person who died in a train accident.

The family members of deceased Basavaraj, a resident of Halkatta village, Chittapur taluk of Kalaburagi district, moved the high court challenging the order passed by the Railway Claims Tribunal, Bengaluru. The claim was that on July 8, 2016, Basavaraj had died in the railway accident.

He was travelling in the train from Kalaburagi to Nalwar Railway Station. The claim application was rejected on March 21, 2018 for the reason that there was a delay of 472 days in preferring the claim application.

Justice Hanchate Sanjeevkumar said that the tribunal should not have rejected the claim application solely on the ground of delay.

“The delay aspect can be considered in a positive and magnanimous way considering judicial notice of the status and living conditions of the applicants, who are wife, children and mother.

The deceased died in the railway accident therefore, the applicants have lost the breadwinner in the family. When this being the fact that a breadwinner died in the railway accident, the life of the applicants had become miserable and have faced mental agony, hardship, inconvenience and financial constraints even it may lead to a struggle for earning livelihood,” the court said.

The court further noted that it is difficult for the applicants to approach the Railway Claims Tribunal to file the claim application when their very existence is a struggle due to the untoward incident. “When the wife and mother are residing in a village being rustic and semi-literate persons and do not have knowledge of worldly affairs, it is quite natural for some delay to occur under these circumstances.

Therefore, the Tribunal ought to have considered the claim application in a positive and in a magnanimous way. Hence, the approach of the Tribunal in dismissing the claim application only on the ground of delay is not correct and thus liable to be set aside. Therefore, the delay in preferring the claim application is hereby condoned,” the court said.

The court remanded the matter back to the tribunal considering that the evidence by both sides was not recorded in the matter. The court has directed the tribunal to dispose of the matter in accordance with law on merits within a period of six months.