APSPDCL Vs. BUJAMMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision petition has been filed by the Divisional Engineer (Operations) and another, Petitioner herein and opposite party before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chittoor (hereinafter referred to as the District Forum) being aggrieved by the order of Andhra Pradesh State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Hyderabad (hereinafter referred to as the State Commission), which had dismissed their appeal and upheld the order of District Forum in favour of M. Bujamma and others, Original Complainants before the District Forum and Respondents herein.

(2.) IN her complaint before the District Forum, Respondent No. 1 had contended that her late husband M. Subramanyam Naidu (hereinafter referred to as the Deceased), who was having an electrical service connection for his poultry farm taken from the Petitioners after paying the due charges, had on 25.5.2008 gone out following failure of electricity being supplied to his farm and accidentally stepped on an electrical wire which had fallen to the ground and being a live wire, he received burn injuries and got electrocuted because of which he died. It was alleged that it was because of the gross -negligence and deficiency in service in failing in their statutory duty to properly maintain the electrical connections and to keep the live wire in a secure condition that it had broken and fallen to the ground resulting in the death of Respondent No. 1 's husband. The fact that the deceased had died because of electrocution was confirmed in the inquest as also the post mortem conducted following his death. The deceased aged about 45 years at the time of his death was hale and hearty and was the only bread winner of the family. He was getting an income of about Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 40,000 from his poultry farm which had 10,000 birds and he was also having 7 acres of agricultural land, in which commercial crops were cultivated and from which he was getting an income of Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 1 lakh per annum. Respondents, therefore; sent a legal notice to the Petitioners asking them to pay Rs. 7 lakh as compensation. On not receiving a favourable response, Respondents filed a complaint before the District Forum and requested that the Petitioners be directed to jointly and severally pay Respondents an amount of Rs. 7 lakh as compensation with interest @ 18% per annum from the date of death of the deceased i.e. 25.5.2008 till the date of realization as also Rs. 50,000 towards damages, mental agony and hardship in not settling the claim within a reasonable time.

(3.) THE District Forum, after hearing the parties and considering the evidence filed before it, allowed the complaint and directed the Petitioners to pay the Respondents a sum of Rs. 4,41,000 as compensation as also Rs. 1,500 as costs within 8 weeks from the date of the order.