Highlights of the Bill

• The Railways (Amendment) Bill, 2014 amends the Railways Act, 1989.

• The Bill defines ‘accidental falling’ to exclude cases of falling from a moving train such as when: (i) entering or leaving a train, (ii) standing near train door, and (iii) travelling on roof top/foot board.

• The Bill states that compensation will not be given for cases of accidental falling involving passenger negligence, suicide attempts, etc. 

Key Issues and Analysis

• It may be argued that by excluding a few instances of accidental falling from the ambit of the Bill, several cases of accidental falling might not get compensation.  These include falling from the footboard of an overcrowded train or when boarding a train with a two minute stop.

• Railways may deny compensation in cases of accidental falling due to passenger negligence, unless the passenger proves that he took reasonable care to avoid the accident.  This differs from other transport laws where the onus of proving negligence is not on the passenger.  

Read complete analysis here