Ravi S.Dhavan, V.P.Goel, JJ. - (1.) This writ petition is, in effect, in the realm of a public interest litigation though the calamity which aggrieves two of the petitioners on the loss of their sons is neither an issue on record nor the cause which caused their death. The only sin of the two young lads was that on a certain day on 11.9.1986, Prabhat Tripathi, a student of 11th standard in Colonelganj Inter College, Allahabad and the eldest son of Vijai Kumar Tripathi, r/o 4, Minto Road, Allahabad and Daya Shankar Tripathi, a graduate and son of Raj Narain Tripathi, r/o village Pahlepar, at P.O. Bhingwa, district Pratapgarh, never knew what providence had ordained for them.
(2.) Daya Shankar Tripathi had come to fill a form in civil police for the post of a Sub-Inspector. He was staying with his uncle. During the evening of 11.9.1986 there was a heavy downpour with a nasty storm. After the storm abated, Vijai Kumar Tripathi asked his son Prabhat Tripathi and his nephew Daya Shankar at about 8.00 in the evening to fetch some kitchen provisions for the evening meal. After 45 minutes a boy of the locality barged into the house of Vijai Kumar Tripathi to announce the horror that 100 yards away from the house two persons had been electrocuted and lay dead in front of the residence of a leading doctor. Vijai Kumar Tripathi and his wife rushed to the scene where the two bodies lay dead. Little did they realise that what lay in front of them were the stone dead bodies of their son and nephew. An attempt by the mother to touch the body was foiled by the father as the puddle from the rain and storm was still carrying electric current from the live wire which had snapped and fallen.
(3.) The parents fainted to gain consciousness after a couple of hours. The incident was reported at P.S. Civil Lines, Allahabad and is so recorded in the General Diary No. 53 at 21.50 hours on the evening of the tragedy itself. The current which continued to flow from the live wire, even almost two hours after the tragedy, it is said, was switched off at 10.30 p.m. The next day saw the cremation of these two young lads.;