India, July 18 -- In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court on Friday said the mere absence of a train ticket on the body of a deceased passenger cannot be a ground to deny compensation to the victim's family in a railway accident case.

The ruling, aimed to strengthen the rights of railway passengers and their families, set aside the concurrent orders of the Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT) and the Madhya Pradesh High Court, and awarded a compensation of Rs 8 lakh to Lata, the widow of a man who died after falling from a running train in 2015.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh allowed the appeal of the widow, whose compensation claim was rejected by the RCT and the high court on the ground that her husband was not pro...