2 houses collapsed from govt pipeline leak: 32 years on, HC upholds ₹2L relief for Sonepat man

Balbir’s two houses collapsed in 1993 after water leaking from a govt-fitted pipeline entered the underground foundation, weakening the structure

Thirty-two years after his two houses collapsed due to leakage of water from a pipeline installed by the public health department, the Punjab and Haryana high court upheld a lower court’s decision to award ₹2 lakh compensation to a Sonepat resident.

The trial court in August 1999 decreed in his favour, a decision challenged before appellate court by the local authorities. (HT Photo for representation)

“The negligence of the defendants is based on tangible evidence such as site plan, witness statements, and the admitted failure of authorities to act on repeated complaints. Both courts found the chain of causation between leakage and structural deterioration duly established,” the bench of justice Deepak Gupta observed while dismissing an appeal filed against lower court orders in 2001 by the Haryana government.

As per the case, Balbir Singh had two houses in Bichpari village in Gohana area of Sonepat. Under a water supply scheme in the village, the public health department laid PVC pipelines in the streets, including the street adjoining the Singh’s houses. The pipes soon developed leakage and despite repeated oral complaints to local authorities, no remedial action was taken.

Owing to persistent leakage, the water allegedly entered the underground foundation through sub-soil channels, weakening the structure and causing initial cracks in the walls and as prompt corrective measures were not taken, the walls of the houses collapsed in June 1993.

Balbir had filed a suit for compensation before the local court demanding ₹2 lakh compensation. The trial court in August 1999 decreed in his favour, a decision challenged before appellate court by the local authorities. But the court affirmed the findings of negligence and liability and told the government to pay the decided amount with interest of 12 per cent per annum.

It was pursuant to this, the government had moved HC arguing that no leakage occurred in the water pipelines installed by the public health department. It was further claimed that no complaint was ever received from Singh or from any villager. The damages were due to other natural or structural causes and that a false story was concocted by the villager merely to claim compensation from the state.

The petition remained pending since then and now while disposing of the matter the HC said that lower courts have recorded a categorical finding that the collapse of houses was directly attributable to negligence on the part of the authorities in maintaining and repairing the leaking water supply pipelines.

The appellate court undertook a fresh and independent appraisal of the entire evidence and concurred with the trial court’s findings on negligence, causation and quantum and dismissed the state’s appeal.

“This court has nevertheless perused the record and the judgments of both courts below, and finds that the findings are based on proper appreciation of evidence and correct application of law. No material irregularity or legal infirmity has been shown. Once the first appellate court, being the final court of facts, has upheld the trial court’s findings, this court cannot substitute its own view merely because another conclusion is possible,” it said adding that in the present case, no flaw, much less perversity, has been pointed out in the concurrent findings.