The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed Tangedco, Madurai to pay a compensation of ₹10.85 lakh to family members of a man who died of electrocution in 2013.
The court heard the petition filed by S. Suriyagandhi, wife of the deceased. The petitioner said her husband was working as a Security Officer. In 2013, while he was on the way to a coconut grove, an overhead line snapped and fell on her husband and he was electrocuted. Due to the negligence of the Electricity Board, the live wire snapped and fell on her husband. However, the EB contended that this had happened due to heavy rain and they were not responsible for it.
Justice R. Vijayakumar observed that the electricity board was responsible for conducting regular inspections for clearing the trees or branches and other interferences to electrical lines. The authorities have to cut trees or prune branches to prevent disturbance to the electrical lines.
Not only the maintenance and upkeep of lines, but preventing trees or branches from interfering in the electrical lines is also the duty cast upon the electricity board. The non-performance of the statutory obligation could only be termed lack of maintenance coupled with negligence, the judge observed.
In the present case, though the live wire got snapped, there were no technical arrangements on the side of the electricity board to see that the electricity got disrupted. Had such an arrangement been there, this unfortunate accident would not have happened. The electricity board is liable to pay a compensation for the death of the petitioner’s husband due to electrocution, the court said.
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