Railway Claims Tribunal Judge Removed After Compensation Scam Probe

A tribunal judge facing probe into the multi-crore compensation scam has been found guilty and removed from service by the President of India, in a first of such action in the history of Railway Claims Tribunals, following due procedure.

The Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT) awards financial compensation for 41 categories of injuries, including amputation at the hip and fracture of the spine, in train mishaps. As NewsClick had earlier reported, there were irregularities involving about Rs 50 crore found in the RCT Patna in awarding compensation between May 2015 and August 2017.

RK Mittal, then Member (Judicial) of Patna Bench RCT, was found guilty by an inquiry conducted by a senior Supreme Court Judge UU Lalit. The President removed the tribunal judge Mittal after submission of the inquiry report on July 11, a senior Railway Ministry official said.

According to the Railways, a group of five lawyers in active collusion with RK Mittal have allegedly collected the compensation amounts twice over the same cases. RCT chairman had earlier written to the Railway Board chairman about the alleged involvement of Mittal in awarding compensation fraudulently to claimants in total violations of rules, in collusion with five lawyers to derive unlawful monetary benefits.

While Mittal has claimed innocence, he was first transferred to the Ranchi Bench and then to the Ernakulam Bench of the RCT before being suspended. The Chief Justice of India had nominated Justice Lalit to probe the case during the tenure of Mittal in Patna Bench of RCT, from May 5, 2015 to August 6, 2017. A gazette notification was  issued to this effect.

The scope of the probe by Justice Lalit was to determine wrongdoings by the tribunal judge in awarding compensations. The probe looked into the alleged compensation scam worth crores of rupees involving filing of fraudulent claims and directly depositing the amount in the claimant's account.

RCT Chairman had conducted an internal inquiry and found that Mittal, in his capacity as Judicial Member, had issued warrants to Reserve Bank of India for nearly 950 cases directing remittances to bank accounts, which were not verified to be the bank accounts mentioned in applications submitted by the claimants.
 

The lawyers, who represented the majority of these cases, took benefit of deposits made by the RBI in obedience to the warrants issued by Mittal. Double payments have been identified in 74 cases. According to the Railways, many people were involved in the compensation racket, and the matter was referred to the CBI probe to include all aspects related to the possible corruption by the local officials of Indian Railways, the Patna Bench, as well as the Reserve Bank of India, and other banks and lawyers who, according to the charges, were in collusion with Mittal.

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The official said, "It was noticed that a group of five lawyers have represented 91% of all the applications, and collected the awarded amounts twice over for same cases, with the help of Mittal, as all these happened during his period.”
 

It has also been alleged that Mittal ordered an unusually high rate of interest over and above the claim amount.
 

Railways had decided to double the compensation paid to train accident victims from 2017, after 140 passengers died in the Indore-Patna Express derailment on November 21, 2016. According to a Railways notification, the immediate family of a passenger, who died in a train accident, would be entitled to receive Rs 8 lakh instead of Rs 4 lakh. A passenger facing serious injuries like loss of limbs or facial disfigurement will also be paid Rs 8 lakh instead of Rs 4 lakh.

Thr Railway Minister usually announces “ex-gratia” compensation to accident victims. This amount is sometimes adjusted with the final claim awards of the RCT, unless otherwise clarified in the notification. Payments in cases leading to amputation due to a shoulder injury have been hiked from Rs 3,60,000 to Rs 7,20,000 and from Rs 1,20,000 to Rs 2,40,000 in the case of loss of thumb. The compensation amount for loss of two fingers of one hand has also been increased from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,60,000.