MURJIBHAI LALJI CHAWDA Vs. GUJARAT ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of judgment and order rendered by Gujarat State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (in short 'the State Commission'), in complaint case No. 169/2002. By the impugned judgment, the complaint filed by the appellants came to be dismissed.

(2.) The appellants are the original complainants. They are the husband and wife inter se and are parents of four deceased minor girls, namely, Rajshree aged about 10 years, Pooja aged about 8 years, Asha aged about 5 years and Khushboo aged about 3 years. The appellants own a house situated in Bajarang Chowk at Gandhidham Kutch. The four ill-fated minor girls, named above, used to reside with the appellants. The appellants had taken electricity connection No. 38104/03188 /0 for supply of electricity to their residential house. The respondent - Gujarat Electricity Board (in short 'G.E.B.') is, admittedly, the service provider. It is an admitted fact that on 7.1.2002 the four minor daughters of the appellants were sleeping in one room of the house. There is no dispute about the fact that somewhere between 4 and 5 a.m., in the early hours of the morning, a bizarre incident occurred in that room. All the four minor daughters of the appellants sustained extensive burn injuries during the course of the incident. They were almost charred to death. Out of them, only one minor daughter, namely, Pooja had survived for about a couple of days. It appears that her dying declaration was recorded wherein she stated that the house was caught by fire due to short-circuit, therefore, she was injured. The incident was reported to the Police by the appellant No. 1. Thereafter, Panchnama of the place of occurrence was drawn by the concerned police. The dead bodies of the ill-fated minor girls were subjected to post-mortem examination. The post-mortem examination revealed that the death is occurred due to 100% burn ofthird degree. The appellants filed complaint seeking recovery of Rs. 19,99,999 as compensation and damages.

(3.) Briefly stated, the case of the appellants is that the incident of fire was result of electrical shbrt-circuit in the room of the house in which the minor daughters were sleeping during the relevant morning. The electricity supply was fluctuating due to technical problem in the transformer. The transformer and the electricity meter was not properly maintained by the respondent (GEB). The respondent failed to take proper care and adopt safety measures to avoid untoward incident. The minor daughters lost their lives due to the rash and negligent act of the respondent. The loss of life of their four minor daughters had caused great distress and loss of consortium to them. The general compensation of Rs. 5 lakh for death of each of the daughters was, therefore, claimed by them.