Pay ₹8 lakh compensation to kin of man who died after falling from moving train: Delhi HC to Railways

The Delhi High Court has directed the Indian Railways to pay ₹8 lakh compensation to the family of a young man who died after falling from a moving train near Agra in 2017. The court ruled that the deceased was a bona fide passenger and entitled to compensation under the Railways Act.

The court set aside a decision of the Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT), which had rejected the family’s claim for compensation, stating that the deceased was travelling on an expired ticket.

The deceased, Lakhan Anuragi, was travelling with his sister and nephew on the Mahakaushal Express from Mahoba railway station in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station on the night of October 3, 2017.

Anuragi reportedly fell off the train near Bhandai in U.P. in the early hours of October 4 and succumbed to his injuries.

Representing the family, advocate Vrinda Kapoor argued that the deceased had travelled with valid tickets, purchased from the railway booking window.

The High Court, in its May 30 judgment, overturned the RCT’s decision, stating that the family’s long wait at the platform and their reason for not boarding the earlier train — likely due to overcrowding and safety concerns — were both reasonable and indicative of legitimate travel intent.

Rejecting the contention that the ticket expired at midnight, the court held that the ticket, having been issued at 5.26 p.m. on October 3, 2017, remained valid for 24 hours.

“In the absence of any explicit stipulation on the face of the ticket or any statutory prescription to the contrary, it cannot be presumed that the validity of the journey ticket expired at midnight,” the court noted.