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Ajay Sharma vs. Union of India

First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8122Decided 21 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
FAO 54/2021CNR: DLHC010025382020
Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri

Background

A passenger who fell from a moving train near Okhla Bridge and lost both legs had his compensation claim rejected by the Railway Claims Tribunal, which doubted his account because of discrepancies about the exact boarding time, missing train-number details, and a later hospital record that noted "RTA," which the Tribunal apparently read as evidence of a road accident rather than the medical term "Renal Tubular Acidosis."

Decision Breakdown

The High Court held that the Tribunal wrongly treated minor discrepancies and an ambiguous medical abbreviation as positive proof of a different cause of injury, when the contemporaneous police entries and the first hospital record actually supported the fall-from-train account. Since compensation for railway accidents is governed by strict, no-fault liability and must be interpreted liberally in favour of claimants, the appeal was allowed, the Tribunal's judgment was set aside, and the matter remanded to assess and disburse compensation.

Lesson Learnt

Railway accident compensation claims are meant to be assessed liberally in favour of victims: minor inconsistencies in an injured claimant's account should not be used to deny an otherwise credible claim, particularly where contemporaneous records support his version.

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