Electricity Board has liability for death of man electrocuted when boarding bus in contact with live wire: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently held that if a person dies from electrocution by a hanging live electric wire touching the vehicle he boarded, the Kerala State Electricity Board and its employees can also be held liable for the same [The National Insurance Co. Ltd. v Narayani & Ors.]..Justice MR Anitha held that the KSEB and its officials are bound to take precautionary measures against dangerous situations that can arise due to thunder or lightning."Whenever there is thunder and lightning, it is the duty of the Board and its officials to visualise the hazards resulting out of it and to take effective measures to prevent casualties out of it," the Court said in its judgment.Therefore, the Court set aside an order of a Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (KSEB) which placed the liability for the electrocution death of a bus traveller solely on the driver and not on the KSEB or its employees."It is the bounden duty of the Board and its employees to keep electric equipment and accessories intact and in proper position so as to avoid danger to the public. Normally, it cannot be imagined that the driver who is driving the vehicle will have any occasion to look into an electric line hanging. However, the incident occurred while the deceased attempted to step into the bus. Since the accident occurred during the course of entering into the vehicle, some liability can be cast upon the driver, owner and insurer of the vehicle but the Tribunal ought not have lost sight of the liability of the Board and its employees", the judgment stated. .The Court was considering an appeal moved by National Insurance Co. Ltd. against an award passed by the Principal Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal (MACT), Kozhikode in a plea seeking compensation for the death of one Krishnankutty. Krishnankutty met with an accident while stepping onto a bus which was touching an electric line hanging over the road and he was electrocuted to death.The claimants, seeking compensation for his death, had argued that the owner of the bus, the driver, the insurer, and KSEB were liable to compensate them since they had not taken proper safety measures by tightening the hanging live wire.The MACT found that the accident was caused due to the negligence of the driver of the bus and directed the insurance company to indemnify the insured, prompting the instant appeal before the High Court.The insurance company argued that the tribunal had arbitrarily held that the driver alone was responsible for the accident even though the police charge was against the driver as well as KSEB and its employees..The Court noted that the only prima facie evidence before the tribunal were the police charge, copy of the first information report (FIR) and the postmortem report.It recalled that a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court had held that when charge sheet is produced it will follow that the negligence is on the part of the person against whom the charge has been laid. The parties who wanted to object that has to adduce evidence to disprove the same.However, the Court noted that, in the instant case, no one was examined before the tribunal to controvert the police charge.Moreover, the respondents had admitted that the at the time of accident, the area was affected by lightning which led to the wire detaching from the cross arm.The Court also went through relevant judgments of the Supreme Court regarding the distinction between composite negligence and contributory negligence and found that the instant case is one of composite negligence."In the absence of any evidence adduced from either side, the Tribunal was wrong when it found that the accident happened solely due to the negligence of the driver of the bus. The original cause for the electrocution and death is due to the negligence of the Board and its employees in not keeping the electric line intact and permitting it to hang above the road which resulted in touching the line on the bus and electrocution of the deceased while he was stepping into the bus. So, this is a clear case of composite negligence though there is no specific evidence as to the extent of liability of each tort-feasor," the Court said in its judgment. .Since it was a case of composite negligence, the tribunal's direction asking the insurance company to indemnify the insured was not found to be illegal.However, the finding of the MACT tha the driver of the bus alone responsible for the accident, was set aside.The right of the appellant-company to reimburse the amount to the extent of liability of KSEB and its employees was reserved on proving the extent of liability of each tortfeasor in appropriate proceedings in accordance with law..Advocates AA Ziyad Rahman, Lal K Joseph and VS Shiraz Bava appeared for the appellant. Advocate Sudheer Ganesh Kumar appeared as Standing Counsel for KSEB. .[Read Judgment]