The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday directed Madurai Municipal Corporation Commissioner to pay a compensation of Rs.3.5 lakh to the parents of a nine-year-old schoolboy who drowned in Panaiyur channel on May 10. Allowing a writ petition filed by the boy’s father, Justice T.S. Sivagnanam held that it was a fit case for issuing a direction to the Corporation to compensate the petitioner since it had failed to construct a wall to ensure that the channel did not become a “death hole.” The Corporation had neither disputed the existence of the channel nor the cause of death of the innocent child.
The allegation levelled by the petitioner’s counsel R. Gandhi that there “was no maintenance of the channel has also not been disputed by the respondent corporation in its counter affidavit which only stated that retaining wall to a height of 300 millimetres had been erected.
Mr. Justice Sivagnanam held that the High Court could exercise its writ jurisdiction to order payment of compensation in such cases.
