Research › Search › Judgment

Jharkhand High Court · body

2016 DIGILAW 1582 (JHR)

Most. Radha Devi, w/o late Bhuneshwar Singh v. Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Railway

2016-11-23

AMITAV K.GUPTA

body2016
ORDER : This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 21.04.2014 passed by the Member(Technical), Railway Claims Tribunal, Ranchi Bench, Ranchi in Case No.OA(IIU)/RNC/2008/0009 whereby the claim application filed under Section 124A of Railway Act, 1989 by the applicant/appellant was dismissed on the ground that the applicant has failed to submit the authenticated documents in support of her claim. 2. Learned counsel for the appellant has submitted that the appellant had filed the photocopies of the documents before the Tribunal as would be evident from paragraphs 3 and 3.1 of the impugned judgment and had also filed petition dated 21.04.2014 for issuance of summons on the witnesses, namely, Station Master, , Block Hut, PP, Ahraura Road, Mirzapur, Investigating Officer, Adalhat Thana, Mirzapur, Ramesh Singh of Narayanpur, Birendra Roy of Narayanpur and Chief Medical Officer, Mirzapur for proving the documents but the learned Tribunal has dismissed the application on the ground that despite opportunity given to the applicant for adducing evidence she had adduced only four witnesses and the documents filed by her were not authenticated hence, she has not been able to establish her case. It is submitted that the Tribunal should have ascertained the authenticity of the documents filed by the applicant either by calling for the report from the concerned Railway/police officials or by summoning the witnesses in terms of the petition dated 21.04.2014 but the Tribunal without passing any order on the petition has dismissed the claim application. At this stage, it is prayed that the matter be remanded to the court below with liberty to the appellant to prove the authenticity of the photocopies of the documents. 3. Learned counsel for the respondents has contended that the impugned judgment has been passed in accordance with law since the documents filed by the applicant are not authenticated and the appellant has failed to establish her claim. 4. Heard. It is evident from the impugned judgment that the learned Tribunal has not passed any order on the petition filed by the applicant for summoning the witnesses and without giving an opportunity to the applicant/appellant for proving the authenticity of the documents, has passed a cryptic and non-speaking order which is not sustainable in the eye of law. The Tribunal has also failed to exercise its jurisdiction under Rule 20 of the Railway Claims Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1989. The Tribunal has also failed to exercise its jurisdiction under Rule 20 of the Railway Claims Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1989. The Tribunal should have, in the interest of justice, passed the order after giving an opportunity to the applicant/appellant to produce the authenticated documents by exercising its power under Rule 20 of the Railway Claims Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1989. 5. In view of the discussions made above, the matter is remitted to the Railway Claims Tribunal which shall follow the procedure as prescribed under Rule 20 as discussed above and pass a reasoned and speaking order after giving an opportunity of hearing to the parties without being prejudiced by any observations made hereinabove. 6. In the result, the appeal is allowed. The impugned judgment/order passed by the learned Tribunal is hereby set aside and the matter is remitted to the Tribunal for deciding the matter afresh. 7. Office is directed to transmit the Lower court records to the court below at the earliest.