SHRIMATI SAVITRI DEVI Vs. DHANI RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by Savitri Devi through her next friend/natural guardian Shri Babu Ram for permission to sue in forma pauperis under the following circumstances.

(2.) The Petitioner, aged about 141/2| years, being a minor and permanently disabled is living under the care and custody of her father and natural guardian Shri Babu Ram in village Kotla, Tehsil Arki, District Solan. She was reading in the 6th class. On the 26th February, 1972, Shri Dhani Ram Respondent without any proper care and caution knowingly fired at the Petitioner, as a result whereof she received several injuries on her face and body and several pellets from the gun shot fired by the Respondent entered her body. Her face has been disfigured and she has become permanently blind from both the eyes. She has thus become permanently invalid and is under constant pains and tortures and for the rest of her life she has to depend on maintenance of others. Besides this, she has lost all chances of marriage and is unable to pursue her studies and requires constant attendance. The Respondent was grossly negligent and callous when he fired the gun shot at the Petitioner. The Respondent know the consequences of his act and hence he is liable for his tortious act. The Petitioner was taken for treatment in the Snowdon Hospital, Simla, and also to Chandigarh and several other places and is even now under treatment. She had to discontinue her studies and on account of the act of the Respondent she had to suffer monetary loss and he is bound to pay the damages and special damages mentioned in para 5 of the petition amounting to Rs. 1,47,000/ -.

(3.) She owns no movable or immovable property, except wearing apparel which are not even worth Rs. 100 and is unable to pay the court -fee. She being a pauper is entitled to sue in forma pauperis. She, therefore, wants to sue the Respondent for special damages of his grossly negligent act and the damages assessed are as already stated above. Since she does not possess any means to pay the court -fee, hence she has made this application for permission to sue as a pauper and after allowing the same to get it registered and numbered as a plaint of the suit.