MAHANAGAR GAS LTD Vs. PRAKASH NANJI VORA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The wife of the Complainant/Respondent had taken a PNG connection from the Appellant Company in a residential flat where she was living with the Complainant, he being her husband and her mother-in-law. On 28.12.1999, the employees of the Appellant Company visited their house to attend to a complaint of leakage in the gas pipeline. Late Jyotiben Nanji Vora, mother of the Complainant, was alone in the house at the time the workers of the Appellant were engaged in the repair work in her kitchen. The case of the Complainant is that the employees of the Appellant had brought a stove for carrying welding work and there was a sudden explosion when they were working on the stove in the kitchen of the Complainant. As a result there was extensive damage to the flat and the fittings and fixtures installed therein. Late Jyotiben Nanji Vora sustained burn injuries and later on succumbed those burn injuries on 29.12.1998. Alleging negligence on the part of the Appellant in rendering services, the Complainant who is son of Late Jyotiben Nanji Vora approached the concerned State Commission by way of a Consumer Complaint. Initially, the Complainant had claimed compensation amounting to 20,00,000/- from the Appellant. However, the Consumer Complaint was later amended in order to claim enhanced compensation amounting to 70,39,510/- which included 48,93,318 towards interest w.e.f. the institution of the Complaint.

(2.) The Complaint was resisted by the Appellant Company which denied any negligence on the part of the workers in carrying out repair, testing etc. It was inter alia stated in the Written Version filed by the Appellant that even the workers deputed by them to carry out the work had sustained serious burn injuries.

(3.) The State Commission vide impugned order dated 26.06.2019 directed as under:-