MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently ordered Rs 13.42 lakh compensation to the family of a security guard who died after accidentally falling into a pit dug for a TWAD board project in 2009.
Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan passed the order on a petition filed by R Valli, wife of the deceased Rajmohan (50), in 2022. A perusal of the order revealed that Rajmohan was working as a security guard in a private school in Madurai.
Around 8.15 pm on October 1, 2009, when Rajmohan was returning home from work on his bicycle, he fell into a 10-ft pit dug for laying a water pipeline for Thirupparankundram water supply scheme, which was being executed by the TWAD Board. He suffered a neck injury and died on the spot.
Blaming the TWAD Board authorities for her husband’s death, Valli requested the court to direct the board to pay compensation to her. However, the government counsel objected to this saying that the board cannot be held liable as it was the contractor who had left the pit open without any caution sign or barricade.
Accepting the contention, the judge concluded that the accident happened only due to the negligence of the contractor. Calculating the compensation amount, the judge directed the contractor to pay Rs 13.42 lakh compensation to Valli.