Lucknow, The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench has held that the death of a sufficiently developed foetus of more than five months’ gestation in a railway accident amounts to the loss of a child and warrants separate compensation.
It further held that the death of the mother and that of the unborn child could not be treated as a single loss for the purpose of compensation. Justice Prashant Kumar set aside a September 26, 2023 order of the Railway Claims Tribunal, Lucknow, and directed the Railways to pay an additional ₹ 8 lakh for the death of a seven-month-old foetus carried by a woman who died after falling from a train.
The bench said the fact that the Railways Act does not specifically mention the term “foetus” could not absolve the Railways of its statutory liability under Section 124-A of the Act in cases involving death arising from a railway accident or untoward incident.
The order came on an appeal filed by the family members of Savitri Devi, who died in the accident. Her family approached the Railway Claims Tribunal seeking compensation. The tribunal, however, declined to award separate compensation for the unborn child, holding that the foetus could not be treated as a bona fide passenger under the Railways Act. The high court disagreed with the tribunal’s view, observing that the death of a sufficiently developed foetus could be treated as the death of a child for determining compensation.
Savitri was travelling with her two sons on the Jan Sadharan Express from Sitapur Cantt to Biswan railway station on June 13, 2017, according to the case. she fell and sustained serious injuries, resulting in her death While getting down from the train at Biswan station. She was around seven months pregnant and the foetus also died.
