The Madras High Court bench here today ordered a compensation of Rs two lakh to the kin of a farmer, who died of electrocution after stepping on a live wire which got snapped in 2007.
Justice S Nagamuthu, awarding the compensation, said as per regulations, the Electricity Board should have taken all safety measures, including installing devices to ensure that the supply of power got automatically cut the moment the overhead wire was snapped.
The very fact that even after wire got snapped and fell on the ground, electricity was passing through it. This showed that such device had not been erected, the judge said on a petition by wife and children of farmer Thambi.
"I have got every reason to hold that the respondent were negligent in taking safety measures. That is why the farmer electrocuted. Therefore, I hold that the Electricity Board is are liable to pay compensation" the Judge said.
The judge also directed the Electricity Board to pay the compensation with interest at the rate of 6 per annum from the date of filing of petition, within a period of three months.
The counsel for the farmer's family said that on June 17, 2007, Thambi had gone to the nearby agricultural field. He had come into contact with a live wire there and got electrocuted.
The postmortem report had revealed that the death was due to electrocution.
The counsel for the Electricity Board contended that due to heavy rain on the previous of the incident, the electric wire had snapped and had fallen on the earth. "It was God's act and there was no negligence on the part of the Board.
