RAILWAY CLAIMS TRIBUNAL

Railway Claims Tribunal

The Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 (‘Act’ for short) was enacted by the Central Government of India, which came into effect from 08.11.1989.  Section 3 of the Act provides for the constitution of Railway Claims Tribunal (‘Tribunal’ for short) to exercise the jurisdiction, powers and authority conferred on it by or under this Act.  The Tribunal is established for inquiring into and determining claims against a Railway Administration for loss, destruction, damage, deterioration or non-delivery of animals or goods entrusted to it to be carried by railway or for the refund of fares or freight or for compensation for death or injury to passengers occurring as a result of railway accidents or untoward incidents and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.   The consignor/consignees and passengers or their representatives prefer claims for compensation for loss of and damage to, booked goods and are not satisfied with the decisions of the railway administration, file suits in courts of law. Claims for compensation for death of or injury or loss etc to passengers in train accidents was settled by claims commissioners. As the litigation in the courts of law and before the claims commissioners was very protracted, it was decided to set up a specialised Tribunal for speedy adjudication of such claims. The setting up of such a claims Tribunal with Benches in different parts of the country, and with judicial and technical members, will provide much relief to the rail users by way of expeditious payment of compensation to the victims of rail accidents and to those whose goods are lost or damaged in rail-transit.

The Principal Bench of the Tribunal is situated at New Delhi.  Other Benches are situated in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chennai, Ernakulam, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Ranchi, Secunderabad, Allahabad, Varanasi and Amaravathi.

The Claims Tribunal shall consist of a Chairman, four Vice-Chairmen and such number of Judicial Members and Technical Members as the Central Government may deem fit and, subject to the other provisions of this Act, the jurisdiction, powers and authority of the Claims Tribunal may be exercised by Benches thereof.  A Bench shall consist of one Judicial Member and one Technical Member. 

The Chairman, Vice-Chairman or other Member shall hold office as such for a term of 5 years from the date on which he enters upon his office or until he attains the age of 65 years in case of chairman and 62 years for other members.  The Chairman shall exercise such financial and administrative powers over the Benches as may be vested in him under the rules.  the Central Government may, from time to time, by notification, make provisions as to the distribution of the business of the Claims Tribunal amongst the Benches and specify the matters which may be dealt with by each Bench.

Claims

The following may be claimed from the Tribunal-

• compensation for loss, destruction, damage, deterioration or non-delivery of animals or goods entrusted to a railway administration for carriage by railway;
• compensation payable under section 82A of the Railways Act or the rules made thereunder; and
• the claims for refund of fares or part thereof or for refund of any freight paid in respect of animals or goods entrusted to a railway administration to be carried by railway.

Place of filing application

• Rule 8 provides that an application for the claim for accident or untoward incident may be fled before the Bench having territorial jurisdiction over the place of accident or untoward incident occurs of where the claimant normally resides.
• Rule 9 provides that an application for the claim for loss, damage, destruction, deterioration or non-delivery of goods or animals may be filed before the Bench having territorial jurisdiction over the place, where-

• the goods or animals were delivered for carriage; or
• where the destination station lies; or
• the loss, destruction, damage or deterioration of goods or animals occurred;

• Rule 10 provides that an application for the claim for refund of fare and freight may be filed before the Bench having territorial jurisdiction over the place at which such fare or freight is paid or the place where the destination station lies.

Language

The language of the Tribunal is either on English or Hindi.   The pleadings may be at the option of the parties either in English or in Hindi.  All orders and judgments may be in English or Hindi at the option of the Tribunal.

Limitation

The limitation for filing claim application before the Tribunal is as detailed below-

• Claims under Section 13(1)(a)(i) of the Act – 3 years;
• Claims under Section 13(1)(a)(ii) of the Act – 1 year;
• Claims under Section 13(1)(b) of the Act – 3 years/

Procedure

An application may be filed before the Tribunal in-

• Form I – claims for compensation for loss, destruction, damages, deterioration or non-delivery of animals or article;
• Form II – claims for compensation for death/injuries in accident/untoward incident.
• Form III – claims for refund of fares or part thereof or for refund of any freight paid in respect of animals or goods entrusted to a railway administration to be carried by railway.

Fees

The fee is payable according to the claims claimed in the application as detailed below-

1. Rs.1 to 100 – Fees payable is Rs.10/-;
2. Rs.100 to Rs.500 – Rs.10/-+ 9% on the amount in excess of Rs.100/-;
3. Rs.500 to Rs.1000 – Rs.46 + 8% on the amount in excess of Rs.100/-;
4. Rs.1000 to Rs.5000 – Rs.86 + 7% on the amount in excess of Rs.1000/-;
5. Rs.5000 to Rs.20000   - Rs.366 + 6% on the amount in excess of Rs.5000/-;
6. Rs.20000 to Rs.30000 – Rs.1366 + 5% on the amount in excess of Rs.20000/-;
7. Rs.30000 to Rs.40000 – Rs. 1766 + 4% on the amount in excess of Rs.30000/-;
8. Rs.40000 to Rs.50000 – Rs. 2166 + 3% on the amount in excess of Rs.40000/-;
9. Rs.50000 – Rs. 1 lakh – Rs. 2466 + 1% on the amount in excess of Rs.50,000/-;
10. Above Rs.1 lakh – Rs. 2966 + 0.5% on the amount in excess of Rs.1 lakh.

The fee shall be payable by a crossed demand draft of any Nationalised bank drawn in favour of the Registrar of the concerned Bench or also by means of India Postal Order drawn in favour of the Registrar of the concerned Bench.

Documents

The following documents are to be enclosed along with the application for the claim for compensation for loss or destruction, damage, deterioration or non delivery of animals or goods in respect of refund of fare or freight-

• Copy of the railway receipt/parcel, way bill/luggage ticket;
• Original sale invoice, if any;
• Copy of order or letter, if any, of the railway administration regarding loss or deterioration or damage to the goods at the time of granting open delivery or assessment delivery;
• Copy of notice issued under section 106 of the Railways Act;
• Copy of any other documents relevant to the application, if any.

The above documents shall be attested by a legal practitioner or by a Gazetted officer of the Central Government or State Government.

The documents filed by the applicant are marked as ‘A’ series.  The documents filed by the respondent are marked as ‘R’ series.

Scrutiny

The Registrar of the authorised Officer shall verify the application filed before the Tribunal. If the application is found to be in order the Registrar may admit the application and give a serial number.  If the application is found to be defective, the Registrar may return the application to the applicant with directions to rectify the defects as pointed out and return within a week time or at the date extended by the Registrar at request of the applicant.   If the applicant fails to rectify the defects, the Registrar may refuse to register the application for reasons recorded in writing.  The order of rejection of the application shall be informed to the applicant. 

If the applicant is not satisfied with the rejection order, he may filed appeal to any of the member and the decision of the said member is final.

Notice to opposite party

When the application is admitted, the Tribunal shall issue a notice to the applicant in Form VII to show cause against the application on the date of hearing fixed by the Tribunal.  The notice shall be accompanied with the claim application. If the respondents are not more than one then such number of copies of applications are to be attached. 

If the respondent files a reply to the show cause notice, such reply along with the documents shall form part of the record.  The respondent shall specifically admit, deny or explain and state such additional facts as may be necessary to the case.

If the respondent fails to file reply to the notice or appears and admits the claim the Tribunal shall proceed to dispose the application.

Service of notice

Any notice or process to be issued by the Tribunal may be serve in any one of the following ways-

• by hand delivery through process server;
• by registered post with acknowledgement due;
• service by the party himself.

Filing of affidavit

The Tribunal may direct the parties to file their evidences through affidavit.  The Tribunal may direct cross examination of the deponent, if required.  The affidavit to be filed before the Tribunal shall be in form VIII. 

Rejoinder

The applicant may file rejoinder to the reply filed by the respondent on the application, with the permission of the Tribunal. 

Ex-parte order

If the applicant fails to appear before the Tribunal the Tribunal may pass ex-parte order against the applicant.  The applicant in his case may file an application before the Tribunal with the prayer to restore the case since his default is not wilful and the reasons for the default is to be explained to the satisfaction of the Tribunal.  Such application is to be filed within 30 days from the date of passing of the ex-parte order. If the Tribunal satisfies that there are sufficient grounds for the applicant preventing him from appearing before the Tribunal, the Tribunal may set aside the ex-parte order and may restore the application and continue further. 

Hearing

The Tribunal shall notify the parties the date and place of the hearing of the application in such manner as the Chairman by general or special order, direct.  The Tribunal may adjourn the hearing at the request of the parties.  No such adjournment shall be given more than 3 times to a party during the proceedings before the Tribunal.

Powers of the Tribunal

The Tribunal shall have the powers of a Civil Court in respect of the following matters, while discharging the applications filed before it-

• Summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath;
• Requiring the discovery and production of documents;
• Receiving evidences on affidavits;
• Subject to the provisions of sections 123 and 124 of the Evidence Act requesting any public record or document or a copy of such record or document from any office.
• Issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses or documents;
• Reviewing its decisions;
• Dismissing an application for default ex-parte;
• Setting aside any order of dismissal of application for default or any order passed by it ex-parte.

Order

If the Tribunal, after hearing the applicant and the respondent department shall pass an order either at once or in some other day not exceeding 21 days from the date of conclusion of arguments.  The Tribunal may extend this timeline after recording the reasons for the same.

Every order shall be in writing and signed by the Members of the concerned Bench. 

If the Members of a Bench differ in opinion on any point, they shall state the point or points on which they differ, and make a reference to the Chairman who shall either hear the point or points himself or refer the case for hearing on such point or points by one or more of the other Members and such point or points shall be decided according to the opinion of the majority of the Members who have heard the case, including those who first heard it.

Execution of order

An order made by the Tribunal under this Act shall be executable by the Tribunal as a decree of civil court and, for this purpose, the Tribunal shall have all the powers of a civil court.  The Tribunal may transmit any order made by it to a civil court having local jurisdiction and such civil court shall execute the order as if it were a decree made by that court.  The application for execution shall be in Form IX.

Appeal

An appeal shall lie from every order, not being an interlocutory order, of the Tribunal, to the High Court having jurisdiction over the place where the Bench is located. No appeal shall lie from an order passed by the Claims Tribunal with the consent of the parties.  Every appeal shall be preferred within a period of 90 days from the date of the order appealed against.