K.S.E.B. Vs. MINOR VINOY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned Senior Counsel for the appellant Kerala State Electricity Board and the learned counsel for the contesting respondents.

(2.) Material legal evidence on record prove that a 16 years old boy who, at that point of time, was allegedly eking livelihood by working as a laborer in a workshop came into contact with live electric line lying in the bush on the ground, when he was walking along with his friends through a paddy field. That was on 12.06.1998. He was taken to the hospital. He had lost his power of speech. He could not stand or even attend to the calls of nature without the help of by-standers. The material allegations regarding the negligence attributed to the officers of the Board, stood supported with the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur and the principle of strict liability, requiring the Board to discharge the burden to prove that the situation was otherwise. There was no legal evidence on the side of the Board authorities in that regard, and the testimony of DW1 with the site mahazar does not lead to any such conclusion. Coupled with this is the testimonies of the witnesses on the side of the plaintiffs, particularly PW2 Naushad, who supported the plaintiffs' case and deposed that while the first plaintiff was walking through the ground, the electric wire lying on the ground happened to touch on him and he sustained the electric shock.

(3.) The suit was instituted in the form of original petition in 1998 seeking leave to sue as an indigent in terms of Order XXXIII of the Code of Civil Procedure. During the pendency of the suit, the victim, the first plaintiff died on 30.12.2000. The additional plaintiffs came on record and the plaint was amended seeking compensation in relation to the death as well.