Chennai: Coming to the rescue of the family members of an agricultural coolie who died due to electrocution, the Madras high court awarded a compensation of Rs 17.75 lakh to them.
Justice T.Raja awarded the compensation while disposing of a petition from Maheswari, wife of the deceased, which sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited to pay a sum of Rs 7 lakh as compensation.
According to petitioner, on June 24, 2017, while her husband, after finishing his agricultural work, was taking bath in the backyard of his house, he came in contact with the overhead three-phase live wires which caused the death of her husband. Immediately after the accident, a case was registered by the Thiruvarur Police. The overhead three-phase wires near her house were running very low and close to palmyrah tree ad therefore, although she and her husband approached the authorities, they have never rectified such defects. In view of such negligence on the part of the Electricity Board, her husband lost his life, that too, at the age of 37 years leaving her and two minor daughters behind. Had the Electricity Board maintained the electricity wires properly, the ill-fated accident would have been averted, she added.
The judge said from the facts and circumstances of the case and also on perusal of the FIR and post-mortem certificate, “it is clear that the death had occurred due to the negligence on the part of the Electricity Board as they have not maintained the live wires properly, therefore, in my considered view, the board cannot escape from the liability of paying compensation”, the judge added.
The judge said with regard to awarding of compensation, there was no codified law for arriving at quantum of compensation in cases of these types of cases.
The enactments like the Motor Vehicles Act and the Workmen’s Compensation Act may be applied for arriving at a just compensation. In the case on hand, at the time of death the petitioner’s husband was aged about 37 years. Therefore, since the deceased was an agricultural coolie, this court by following the recent judgment of the division bench of this court, was inclined to fix a sum of Rs 11,000 per month towards notional income. After adding 25 percent towards future prospectus, the total monthly income of the deceased works out to Rs 13,750, the judge added.
The judge said by following the ratio laid down by the Apex Court, this court fixes multiplier at 15 and as the deceased was a married person at the time of death, after deducting 1/3rd of his income towards personal expenses, this court awards a sum of `16.50 lakh towards loss of dependency. By adding the compensation towards loss of love and affection, pain and sufferings and funeral expenses, the court awarded a total sum of Rs 17.75 lakh as compensation, the judge added.
