Mumbai: The Bombay high court rejected the plea of a woman, Noorja Khan, seeking compensation from Reliance Infrastructure after her son allegedly died due to electrocution on the ground that an allegation was not sufficient to ascertain payment of compensation, but had to be proved with proper evidence.
A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharati Dangre while hearing the writ petition filed by Ms Khan, was informed that in 2010 her 17-year-old son had come in contact with a live wire that had been laid by Reliance Energy and, due to the shock, got thrown in a puddle which also had live current as a result of which he got electrocuted and died.
The counsel for Reliance Infrastructure, however, refuted the claims and said that cases of power theft were rampant in the area and the live wire could have been the handiwork of someone who tried to take an illegal connection.
After hearing both sides, the bench said, “Compensation is awarded in cases of electrocution only if the accident is not caused by the victim’s own fault. However, in cases like these, where there is a dispute, the allegation of negligence and carelessness will have to be established and proved by the petitioner.” Thus saying the petition was dismissed with liberty to the mother to file a civil suit.
