Ritu Bahri, J. - (1.) THE petitioners are seeking issuance of direction to the respondents to compensate them for the death of their son Akashdeep, aged about 7 years, due to negligence of respondents. On 23.05.1999, when son of the petitioners was going to play, an electric wire fell on him, as a result thereof, he died on the spot. He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead. An investigation was carried out by the Chief Electrical Inspector, who gave his report as under: - "Sh. Akashdeep son of Sh. Gurdeep Singh got an electric shock and died at village Shamshabad Patti. During investigation, it was revealed that the neutral wire of the LT Line passing along the Basti broke and fell down on the ground. Neutral (Broken) remained live and fuses did not blow off. Sh. Akashdeep was passing this broken neutral wire suddenly got entangled and received electric shock and fell down on the ground. He was taken to hospital where he was declared dead by the doctors. Had the proper capacity of fuse been provided in the LT fuse unit the accident could have been avoided."
(2.) AS per the opinion of the Chief Electrical Inspector, Rule 29 of the Indian Electricity Rules, 1956, has been violated and Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd. (HVPNL) was responsible for the accident. The matter was immediately reported to the police on 23.05.1999 vide DD No. 8, apart from informing the Electricity Board (respondent Nigam). The postmortem of the son of the petitioners was conducted in Civil Hospital, Sirsa. The postmortem report is reproduced as under: - "The cause of death in this case, in my opinion, is as a result of electric shock injuries described which are ante mortem in nature and sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature."
(3.) THE petitioners gave legal notice dated 07.08.1999 (Annexure P -1) to the respondents, which was received by them. The respondents gave reply (Annexure P -2) to the legal notice of the petitioners, wherein the claim of compensation was denied on the ground that on 23.05.1999, it was cloudy and stormy day and rains were followed by cyclone, which must have resulted in breaking of electric wire. It was an act of God and nature and the respondents were not responsible for the alleged accident.;