S.B.MAJMUDAR J. - (1.)These two first appeals arise out of one and the same judgment delivered by the learned Second Joint Civil Judge (Senior Division) Nadiad on 8 whereby the original claims in special civil suit No. 272 of 1976 for damages came to be partly decreed against the original defendant 1 2 3 and 4 out of which original defendants Nos. 1 and 2 are the appellants in first appeal No. 637 of 1981 while the plaintiff in his turn is the appellant in cross appeal No. 1189 of 1981 wherein he claims larger damages against the concerned defendants. As the plaintiff as well as contesting parties are appellants in cross appeals we will refer to the parties as the plaintiff and defendants in the same sequence in which they were arraigned before the trial court for the sake of convenience in the later part of this judgment.
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(3.)Relevant Facts: In order to appreciate the main grievance of the contesting parties in the present appeals it is necessary to note a few relevant facts leading to the present proceedings. At village Vadeli in Borsad taluka of Kaira district is situated a Shiv Temple also styled as Nityanand Mahadev temple. In the month of Shravan Akhand Bhajan (continuous reciting of religious prayers) was being held at the said temple under the auspicies of Bhakta Mandal consisting of residents of village Vadeli. For facilitating chanting of Bhajans in the said temple electric connection for fixing mike and light in the temple was felt necessary. In Shravan of S.V. 2032 such Bhajans were held and for that purpose light and mike arrangements were made. Electric connection was therefore taken from the nearby electric pump situated on the well of original defendants Nos. 2 and 3. The said electric connection is said to have been taken by defendant No. 4 at the instance of and as per the directions of defendant No. 1 who was the trustee of the temple as well as Sarpanch of the said village. Defendants Nos. 5 and 6 are also alleged to have given suitable directions to defendant No. 4 to instal the said connection. In the process electric connection was taken by means of an iron wire admeasuring about 1200 feet which partly consisted of insulated wire and rest of the wire was open. The said wire through which electric connection was taken upto the temple passed over various fields one of the fields being that of the plaintiff. The said connection remained on spot for about 15 days without any untoward incident. However on the day of the incident that is on 10-8-1976 at about 10 a.m. in the morning the plaintiff while he was working in his field got electric shock on account of the electricity escaping from the naked wire which was passing over his field. The plaintiff as a result got electroculated and suffered grievous injuries. It is in these circumstances that he filed the aforesaid special civil suit in the court of the 2nd Joint Civil Judge Senior Division Nadiad for recovering damages to the tune of Rs. 80 0 from the concerned defendants 1 to 6. He contended that because of the negligence on the part of the concerned defendants in taking electric connection by open and naked wire from the well of defendants Nos. 2 and 3 on the one hand to the temple on the other the plaintiff suffered serious injuries because of the escaping of electricity through open wire which was passing over his field. As noted earlier the learned trial Judge partly decreed the plaintiffs suit to the tune of Rs. 42000 with interest and cost against defendants Nos. 1 to 4 and dismissed the suit against defendants Nos. 5 and 6.
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