The State is liable for compensation when its machinery fails to protect citizens' lives and property, and political parties must uphold the Constitution and respect the laws of the land.

This writ petition has been preferred for issue of a writ of Mandamus directing the first respondent to pay a sum of Rs.5 lakhs as compensation to the petitioner on account of the unfortunate death of his son by way of electrocution and to take both departmental and criminal action against respondents 2 to 6 for their negligence.

2. The factual matrix necessary for the disposal of the writ petition are as under:-

Petitioners case:-

The petitioner is a tea shop owner and his shop is located at No.79, Azad Road, Thorappadi, Vellore about 100 metres away from his house. The petitioner had one son and two daughters and he was maintaining the family with the meagre income derived from the tea shop. While so, the Tamil Nadu Noon Meals Employees State Conference was organised in Vellore under the leadership of Tmt.Indira Kumari, the then Minister for Social Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu. All the preparatory and decorative works were started and carried out even ten days before the date of the convention. Since the Chief Minister was to be the Chief Guest of the said conference, organisers had arranged massive and festive decorations to felicitate her visit. They have put casuarina barricade on both sides of the road from Thorappadi to the venue of the conference at Vellore. They have also put up number of decorative arches, banners, paintings, boards, illuminary, flourecent and fancy decorative lights on both sides of the road. The organisers have also put up tube lights on casuarina poles for every ten feet on both sides of the road covering the entire stretch of the road from Thorappadi to Vellore. Further they have also pasted decorative colour papers on thin iron ropes/wires and tied them with the casuarina poles. All the lights were put on from the morning itself on 12. 1995 before the arrival of the then Chief Minister at Thorappadi by helicopter. Electricity supply for the lights were directly taken from the street lines and with the full connivance of the Government officials.

3. As scheduled, the Chief Minister arrived attended the function and after the conclusion of the meeting, the Chief Minister returned to Thorappadi by car and then proceeded to Chennai by helicopter. The Honouarble Chief Minister crossed the Azad road at about 5.00 p.m. and on hearing the noise of the helicopter, the only son of the petitioner by name Dinakaran, aged nine years, left the house and came towards the tea shop of the petitioner at Azad Road with an anxiety to see the then Chief Minister. The petitioners son entered the Azad Road and when he was just four shops away from the tea shop of the petitioner, the decorative colour papers pasted in iron rope/wire hanging from the casuarina pole obstructed and rolled down in his foot and he was pulled down on the floor with heavy shakes and shivering. The child cried and shouted for help and on hearing the noise, the petitioner rushed to the spot to rescue his son. When the petitioner tried to remove the iron wire rolled down in his sons foot believing that it was only an ordinary decorative iron wire, the petitioner experienced heavy electric shock and before realising that electricity was passing through the decorative iron wire, he was thrown away on the floor and became unconscious. He regained his consciousness only in Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore after four days of the incident and only thereafter the petitioner came to know as to what had really happened on 12. 1995 as well as the instantaneous death of his son in the said incident.

4. The petitioner was informed that his son was also taken to the Christian Medical College Hospital in a van by a Security Officer posted for the security of the then Chief Minister and after arrival at the hospital, the petitioners son was declared dead. The petitioner also sustained electric burn injuries in his right wrist, left arm, chest and scapular region and he was an inpatient in the hospital from 12. 1995 to 112. 1995. Subs