“A smile on a poor person’s face is what we want to earn, nothing else,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said on Thursday while noting that Railways finally managed to trace and pay Rs 8.92 lakh as compensation to a tragedy-struck widow, who lost her husband in a train accident in 2002 after the Supreme Court’s nudge.
The bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, said it was a difficult task to trace the elderly women, who had changed her residence in a far-flung village of Bihar and her last contact was lost as her local lawyer passed away, lauded the efforts of Railways and advocate Fauzia Shakil, who represented the widow pro bono (without any fees) to ensure she gets the financial relief.
“This young lawyer (Shakil), who represented her pro bono, ensured that she gets the compensation after 23 years.
We had to trace her with the help of the local police and administration and finally railways managed to pay her.
A smile on a poor person’s face is what we want to earn, nothing else,” CJI Surya Kant said. The railways, in its affidavit, said that in compliance with the October 6 order, it managed to trace the woman Sanyokta Devi with the help of the local administration and the police. In October, the top court walked an extra mile to ensure that the widow is duly compensated by the Railways after years of struggle.
Devi’s husband Vijay Singh had a valid railway ticket from Bakhtiyarpur station to go to Patna by the Bhagalpur-Danapur Inter-city Express on March 21, 2002, but he accidentally fell down from the running train at the originating station itself, due to heavy rush inside the compartment and died instantly.
What followed was a legal battle for the next two decades, as Devi’s claim for compensation was turned down by the Railway Claims Tribunal and the Patna High Court on the ground that the deceased was of unsound mind.
Aggrieved by the high court’s order denying her claim, she, through her lawyer Shakil, approached the apex court.
