IREC Rule No.1204: Compensation For Loss Of Personal Property
1204. Compensation For Loss Of Personal Property:-
(1) Claims to compensation for loss of personal property shall ordinarily be considered only where-
(a) The exposure of the property to risk is directly connected with the duties on which the railway servant is employed at the time, e.g., when the railway servant is travelling on duty by water or rail and the loss is due to an accident which occurred in the course of the journey or when the action of an enemy or insurgents or of raiders or wild tribes on the frontier causes the loss of the property of a railway servant employed in the area affected, or
(b) The loss to property is caused by the action of strikers or rioters and there is no possibility of any claim by the railway servant in his capacity as a private citizen being entertained by the State Government concerned under any law for the time being in force, or
(c) The property lost consisted of necessary equipment which at the time of its complete or partial destruction was in a Government building or other habitation where the railway servant was obliged to reside for the effective discharge of his duties, or
(d) The property is lost in consequence of endeavors on the part of the railway servant to save the property of Government which was also endangered at the time, or
(e) The property is destroyed under orders of competent authority.
Provided that no compensation shall be paid in respect of;
(i) Losses due to ordinary thefts, even when accompanied by violence, or
(ii) Losses which are due in any way to negligence or other default on the part of the claimant. (For instance, when the property is such which, as a matter of ordinary prudence, the owner of the property could and should have insured. The question whether the property ought to have been insured is one of fact for the decision of the sanctioning authority).
(2) Compensation is ordinarily not admissible for loss of property due to a cause which is entirely an ‘Act of God’.