1800
Pushpa Girimaji
Last year, my 26-year-old daughter, who was on her way home from college where she was studying in her final year of MBA, got electrocuted from a snapped power line. She was our only child and the tragedy devastated my wife. We are still unable to come to terms with it and have decided that the power distribution company should pay for its negligence. Can I file a complaint before the consumer court?
You can certainly seek compensation for the tragic death of your daughter through the consumer court. In managing director-cum-chairman AP Transco vs Mohd Noorullha Shareef (First Appeal No 235 of 2010, decided on March 7, 2018), the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission made it clear that there was no ambiguity about the jurisdiction of consumer courts in deciding such cases. Here, the victim had got electrocuted from a snapped power line near his home while returning from a mosque and the power company had raised the issue of the jurisdiction of the consumer courts. The Commission, however, held that once the deficiency of the power company was proved, it was liable to pay on the basis of strict liability.