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Refusing to allow any wiggle-room to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and invoking the principle of strict-liability, the Madras High Court in Alamelu v. State of Tamil Nadu ordered TNEB to pay a compensation of Rs 7, 27,000 for advertently or inadvertently causing the death of the petitioner’s husband.
When the petitioner and her husband were about to open the hotel for the day, a live wire fell on his head and took his life after subjecting him to a great deal of agony.
TNEB argued that while he indeed died of electrocution, the fault was not its inasmuch as there was heavy wind at the relevant point of time causing a branch of a tree to fall off which, in turn, brought down the live wire, that in turn fell on the deceased.
The Madras High Court was not impressed and presumed it to be the guilt of TNEB on the basis of strict-liability doctrine.
And as far as compensation was concerned, it went by the compensation prescribed in the Motor Vehicles Act in the absence of any provisions dealing with compensation in the Electricity Act, 2003, and took into account the fact that the deceased was only 39 when he died as well as his minimum earning capacity.
(The author is a New Delhi-based chartered accountant.)
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