JADUMANI PENTHEI Vs. MANAGING DIRECTOR, NESCO AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Judgment and decree dated 17.09.2004 and 30.09.2004 respectively passed by the learned Civil Judge (Senior Division), Keonjhar in dismissing the Money Suit No. 30 of 2002 is under challenge in this appeal.

(2.) The suit was filed by the parents of the deceased -Ranjit Penthei claiming damages of Rs. 3,00,000/ - for the death of said Ranjit (for short, 'deceased') due to electrocution. In the meantime, appellant No. 1 -Jadumani Penthei (father of the deceased) has died and appellant No. 2 -Gomati Penthei, the mother of the deceased is only prosecuting the appeal.

(3.) Case of the plaintiffs in short is that due to heavy rain and storm in the night of 4/5.10.2000, the live electricity wire in their village Kalima was snapped and was hanging from the pole. The same was not attended to by the distribution Company, namely, North Eastern Electricity Supply Company Orissa Limited (NESCO) personnel, who were in -charge of maintenance in that area in spite of information. As a result, Ranjit Penthei (the deceased), a young man of 19/20 years old came in contact with the live wire at 9/10 AM, while escorting the cattle near the electric pole and died instantaneously. The FIR was lodged at Telkoi Police Station, and on requisition, postmortem examination was conducted over the corpus. The postmortem report disclosed that the death was caused due to electrocution. Such an unfortunate incident occurred due to the negligent act of officials of NESCO. At the time of death, the deceased was earning about Rs. 4,000/ - per month. Due to death of the only earning member of the family, the plaintiffs are starving and thus the suit was filed for the aforesaid relief.