Madras HC directs TN govt to pay compensation to deceased farmer's family for PHC’s negligence

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the State to pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the family of a deceased farmer who was died on the account of negligence of a primary health center which failed to treat him for snake bite.

Justice Anita Sumanth wrote that the present case is a clear breach of rules, the State cannot shy away from its responsibility, while allowing a petition moved K Aruna wife of the deceased farmer seeking compensation.

Since the petitioner having two children aged 10 and 12 years, the compensation has to be awarded in order to secure their future, at least, to some extent, wrote the judge.

As the petitioner lost her family's sole bread winner, the State offered two jobs as a multi-purpose hospital worker with salary of Rs.700 as daily wage or women health volunteers with a salary of Rs 5,500 monthly.

The judge directed the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine to recruit the petitioner in any one of the two postings with mutual consent.

The factual matrix of the case is that the husband of the petitioner bitten by a poisonous snake, was taken to the nearby primary health centre (PHC) at Kannankottai, Gummidipoondi.

Since, the PHC remain closed the petitioner's husband succumbed to the snake poison as he couldn't get treatment.

Aggrieved by the negligence of the PHC medical staffs, the petitioner moved a petition seeking action against the media staffs and to secure compensation for her loss.