CWP No.14373 of 2008 1 IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. CWP No.14373 of 2008 Date of decision: 14.08.2008 Balbir Kaur and others ...Petitioners Versus The State of Haryana & others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJAN GUPTA Present: Mr. V.K. Jindal, Advocate, for the Petitioners. Rajan Gupta, J. The petitioners have preferred this writ petition praying for a mandamus directing the respondents to pay compensation to the tune of Rs.10.00 lacs due to death of Karan Singh son of Sadhu Singh in judicial custody. Petitioner No.1 is widow and petitioner Nos.2 to 4 are children of Karan Singh. According to the averments made in the petition, a criminal case was registered against Karan Singh at Police Station Ambala Cantt, under Sections 409, 120-B & 216 of the Indian Penal Code, vide First Information Report No.199 dated 20th May, 2002. Karan Singh was declared proclaimed offender in the said case and was taken in custody on 12th August, 2006 when he surrendered before the court of Judicial CWP No.14373 of 2008 2 Magistrate 1st Class, Ambala Cantt. Later, when the case was fixed before the said court on 9th September, 2006, a letter was received from Superintendent of Jail, Ambala informing that Karan Singh had died on 21st August, 2006. A death-certificate was also produced, which is annexed as Annexure P-3 to the petition. In view of this, the proceedings were dropped and file was consigned to records. The petitioners have now claimed that Karan Singh was the sole bread winner of the family and he had died due to negligence of the officials of Central Jail, Ambala, thus, the petitioners are entitled to compensation of Rs.10.00 lacs. We have heard learned counsel for the petitioners and perused the record. The postmortem-report, which is annexed with the petition as Annexure P-5, shows that deceased Karan Singh was suffering from chronic lung disease. The doctor of General Hospital, Ambala City, who conducted the postmortem-examination, has opined that the said disease could be sufficient to cause death in normal course. It appeared later that there was an inquiry by the Executive Magistrate, Ambala, who recorded statements of two doctors of Central Jail, Ambala. According to the statements dated 22nd August, 2006 of two doctors i.e. Dr. Arun Kumar Chaudhary and Dr. Shashi Tripathi, Medical Officers, posted in Central Jail, Ambala, deceased Karan Singh was having weak health condition and was complaining of pain in the CWP No.14373 of 2008 3 chest. Some water was also oozing out from his mouth and prima facie he had died due to heart failure. After perusing the postmortem-report and statements of the doctors, we are of the confirmed view that no case for grant of compensation is made out in the present case. The deceased Karan Singh, who was a proclaimed offender, died in judicial custody and not due to any police excess or atrocity. The argument that deceased Karan Singh died due to negligence of the jail staff, prima facie appears to be devoid of force. No other argument has been advanced. The writ petition is, therefore, dismissed. (RAJAN GUPTA) JUDGE (ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA) JUDGE August 14, 2008 'rajpal'