JUDGMENT :

CHAKRADHARI SHARAN SINGH, J.

Learned counsel for the petitioner is permitted to make following corrections in the description of Respondents No 1 and 2 by way of substituting the words and figure as under:-

“1. The South Bihar Power Distribution Co Ltd, Vidyut Bhawan, Bailey Road, Patna through its Managing Director;

2. The Deputy Secretary, South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited, Patna.

2 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the respondents.

3 It is an undisputed fact that the petitioner’s husband died of electrocution on 03.11.2019. An Unnatural Death Case was registered on the same day. The Bihar Electricity Regulatory Commission, Patna has framed Compensation to Victims of Electrical Accidents Regulations, 2018 (Regulations for short) in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 181 (1) and 181 (2) (za) read with Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the Electricity Act, 2003 and other powers enabling it in this behalf. Regulation 4 of the said Regulations reads as under:

“4. Liability for compensation:-

(1) The licensee failing to meet the standards of performance specified in Regulation 3 above shall be liable to pay compensation as specified in these Regulations to the person affected for loss of human or animal life or injury to human beings or animals or property in consequence of an electrical accident.

(2) Whether or not there has been any wrongful act, omission, rashness, neglect or default on the part of the licensee and generating companies as the case may be as would entitle the person affected to maintain a civil action for recovery of any damages or compensation or maintain a prosecution for invoking criminal liability in respect thereof, the licensees and generating companies as the case may be shall notwithstanding anything contained in any other law in force, be liable to pay compensation to such extent as specified in these Regulations, if an electrical accident occurs, resulting in loss of human or animal life or injury to human beings or animals unless the electrical accident primarily was not due to the failure of the licensee generating companies as the case may be to meet the standards of performance but was a direct or proximate result of intervention of some other extraneous reason or cause:

Provided that if the loss of human life is due to suicide or homicide or the injury to a human being is due to an attempt to commit suicide or homicide, the licensee generating companies as the case may be shall not be liable to pay any compensation for the same under these Regulations.”

(Underlined for emphasis)

4. The Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited (for brevity, the Company), which is a licensee within the meaning of Section 2 (39) read with Section 14 of the Electricity Act, 2003, has issued guidelines for disposal of claims for grant of compensation under the said Regulation. Admittedly, the petitioner had made an application before the Executive Engineer, Chandi, Nalanda of the Company for grant of compensation under the Regulations. The said application contained recommendation of the local Mukhiya and concerned Block Development Officer (for brevity, BDO), Tharthari. The petitioner’s claim for grant of compensation has, however, been rejected by the Respondent Company by an order dated 30.06.2020 (Annexure 5) which is under challenge in the present writ application. In the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the Company, a plea has been taken that it was not out of any fault on the part of the Company that the petitioner’s husband got electrocuted rather the petitioner’s husband had made an attempt to cure the defects cropped up in the service wire, for the purpose of restoring the electric connection illegally and in that course, he got electrocuted and subsequently died. It is, accordingly, the case of the Company that petitioner's claim for payment of compensation under the Regulations was rightly rejected. The counter affidavit, however, does not disclose any material basis for t