Loss of five-month-old foetus amounts to loss of child: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has declared that the demise of a foetus developed enough to be over five months pregnant in a railway accident constitutes the loss of a child, entitling the family to separate compensation. In a recent ruling, Justice Prashant Kumar overturned a September 26, 2023, decision by the Railway Claims Tribunal in Lucknow.

The court's decision came following an appeal from the family of Savitri Devi, who tragically fell from a train while traveling with her two young sons on the Jan Sadharan Express from Sitapur Cantt to Biswan in Uttar Pradesh on June 13, 2017.

At the time of the accident, Savitri was in her seventh month of pregnancy, and the foetus also succumbed to the injuries sustained. The family had initially sought compensation from the Railway Claims Tribunal, which ruled that the unborn child could not be considered a bona fide passenger under the Railways Act, thus denying separate compensation. However, the High Court disagreed, stating that a sufficiently developed foetus should be treated as a child for the purpose of calculating compensation.

The court reasoned that because Savitri was carrying a seven-month-old foetus, the unborn child should be compensated separately. The court emphasized that the absence of a specific mention of "foetus" in the Railways Act does not exempt the railways from their statutory duty under Section 124-A of the Act in cases involving death resulting from a railway accident or untoward incident.

Consequently, the railways were ordered to pay an additional ₹8 lakh to the claimants, in line with the compensation guidelines set out in the amended Schedule to the Railway Accidents and Untoward Incidents (Compensation) Rules, 1990.