KRISHNA DEVI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer in this petition is for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to pay compensation to the petitioners for death of Atma Ram-husband of petitioner No. 1 in an accident caused by a stray animal.

(2.) Atma Ram and his brother Gulab Singh were on their way back to their village Dharnia in the late hours on 3.8.2016 riding on motorcycles. Night had fallen and it was about 10.00 PM that the surviving brother Gulab Singh, the only eye witness to the unfortunate incident, would after the fatal accident the next morning state in the police station that a stray bull came suddenly out of the fields along the village road and hit his brother's motorcycle causing him to fall to his death. He was shifted to hospital where he was declared dead. The post-mortem report attributes death due to injury to vital organ, i.e. the brain, which was ante mortem in nature and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of life. To connect the brain injury with the incident would require unimpeachable evidence not likely to come forth except the lone statement of the brother.

(3.) Atma Ram's mother and her family members have approached this Court for compensation against the Municipal Corporation, Fatehabad and the State of Haryana. The family of the deceased was offered Rs. 1 lakh by the State Government under its policy as compensation for death due to injury caused by a bull. The place of occurrence is a village road, running through farmlands close to Dhani Bharat Lal in their native village Dharnia. The State has discharged its liability by payment of Rs. 1 lakh under its policy.