The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to pay compensation of ₹6 lakh to the family of a 12-year-old schoolgirl who got electrocuted, after falling into stagnant rainwater, while returning home in her bicycle at Mahalakshmi Nagar Main Road near Thiruvottiyur on August 22, 2006.
Justice S. Vaidyanathan ordered that the compensation should be paid to the victim, S. Prema’s father P. Siva Shakthivel, with interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of the accident. He also wanted the entire amount to be recovered from the officials who had visited the petitioner and assured them of granting relief.
‘Not an act of God’
Rejecting TNEB’s contention that the accident was an “act of God” and that vicarious liability could not be fixed against it, the judge said that there were enough number of judgments fixing the liability on the board for such accidents and, therefore, it could not wriggle out of its responsibility to pay adequate compensation.
He made it clear that the victim’s father should be compensated within three months and the money should be recovered from the officials concerned within a month thereafter. If the money was not recovered within the stipulated time, then it would carry interest at the rate of 12% per annum, he ordered.
In his affidavit, Mr. Shakthivel had accused the TNEB officials of not keeping their promise of paying compensation.
He also said that there was no response despite making several representations to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell, Commissioner of Revenue Administration and the Tiruvallur Collector.
