‘First you take a drink, then drink takes you’: Bombay High Court quotes Scott Fitzgerald, denies railways’ relief to man

“Alcohol ruins, it ruins everything. Physical and mental health, relationships, causes family breakdown, social dysfunction, career disruption and has severe long-term lifestyle consequences,” the order read.

Background

• The applicant was working as a Lab Assistant with a hospital.
• He had claimed that in 2001, while waiting on a railway station platform to board a train towards Borivali in Mumbai, he was knocked down by a train, resulting in an injury.
• Railway officials took him to the hospital where the authorities, while recording patients’ history at the time of admission, noted that the applicant had four large pegs of alcohol before dinner.
• The applicant’s claim for compensation under the Railways Act, 1989, came to be rejected by the Railway Claims Tribunal.

Findings

• The tribunal’s reasoning for rejecting the claim that he was knocked down has not been appreciated in the correct perspective.
• In the statement recorded by the injured person, he has said that while waiting to board a train towards Borivali, he was knocked down.
• This is not a case where a person was knocked down while crossing the tracks, but where a person while waiting on the platform must have stood closer to the border of the platform and, therefore, when the train approached the station, got hit and suffered injury.
• The reasoning given by the tribunal for rejecting the claim cannot be accepted. However, the issue is whether the injury has been caused on account of “untoward incident”.
• Section 124A of the Railways Act, 1989, states that no compensation shall be payable by the Railway administration if the passenger suffers injury due to any act committed by him in a state of intoxication or insanity.
• The medical report issued by the Bombay Hospital records that the applicant had consumed four large pegs of liquor before dinner.
• When it is an admitted position, as recorded by the hospital authorities, that the applicant had consumed four pegs of liquor, it is a case of a person being in a state of intoxication.
• When a person is so heavily drunk, then his act of standing close to the border of the platform would be a case falling within clause (d) – no compensation shall be payable under this section by railways if the passenger dies or suffers injury due to any act committed by him in a state of intoxication or insanity – of the proviso to Section 124A of the Railways Act, 1989.
• Standing near the border of the platform after consuming four pegs of liquor would fall within the said expression. When a person is in a state of intoxication, he would not know the border of the platform where he is standing.
• The applicant is not entitled to compensation by virtue of clause (d) of first proviso to Section 124A of the Railways Act, 1989.

What is Section 124A of the Railways Act?

Section 124A of the Railways Act, 1989, deals with compensation for injury or death due to an “untoward incident” in the course of railway travel.

It says: When in the course of working of railway an untoward incident occurs, then whether or not there has been any wrongful act, neglect or default on the part of the railway administration such as would entitle a passenger who has been injured or the dependant of a passenger who has been killed to maintain an action and recover damages in respect thereof, the railway administration shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, be liable to pay compensation to such extent as may be prescribed and to that extent only of loss occasioned by the death of, or injury to, a passenger as a result of such untoward incident:

Provided that no compensation shall be payable under this section by the railway administration if the passenger dies or suffers injury due to:

(a) suicide or attempted suicide by him;

(b) self-inflicted injury;

(c) his own criminal act;

(d) any act committed by him in a state of intoxication or insanity;

(e) any natural cause or disease or medical or surgical treatment unless such treatment becomes necessary due to injury caused by the said untoward incident.