MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE Vs. HARISH KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) First Appeal Nos.186 of 1993 and 188 of 1993 are cross appeals which stand concluded by our earlier exhaustive order in Appeal No.2 of 1992 Municipal Committee, Rewari V/s. Brij Mohan Aggarwal, decided on April 9,1992. This order will govern both of them.

(2.) The facts may be noticed with relative brevity from First Appeal No.186 of 1993 Municipal Committee, Gurgaon V/s. Harish Kumar. The complainant-respondent is a resident of 62, Sessions House, Civil Lines, Gurgaon. It was his case that on 3-11-1992, the sewer man-hole on the road situated in Mohalla Shivaji Nagar was lying open and the road near it was in grave disrepair. At about 9.15 p. m. on that night, the respondent happened to pass on that road on a scooter and due to darkness and in the absence of any signal at that place, he fell down in the ditch of the manhole and therefore, received multiple serious injuries. It was alleged that the respondent paid road-tax and even otherwise, the Municipal Committee was legally bound to repair and maintain the manhole and the roads and keep them motorable because it receives taxes and grants from the Government for the said purpose. Compensation to the tune of Rs.50,000/- for injuries and for added sums on other accounts was claimed as relief.

(3.) The appellant-Municipal Committee, Gurgaon in defending the complaint strenuously took-up the primal jurisdictional plea that the complainant-respondent did not fall within the definition of a consumer and consequently the complaint was not maintainable at the very threshold. The factual allegations of the respondents were also controverted.