1 2025:CGHC:17712 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPC No. 1053 of 2022 1 - Smt. Falika Bai W/o Late Shri Garjan Singh Malakar Aged About 64 Years R/o Village- Majhapara Ward No. 6 Saraypali, Thana And Tahsil- Baramkela, District- Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) ... Petitioner versus 1 - State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary, Revenue And Disaster Management Department, Mantralaya Mahanadi Bhawan, Capital Complex Raipur, District- Raipur (Chhattisgarh). 2 - Collector Raigarh, District- Raigarh (Chhattisgarh). 3 - Sub Divisional Officer (Revenue) Sarangarh, District- Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) 4 - Tahsildar Baramkela, District Raigarh (Chhattisgarh). 5 - Station House Officer Police Station Baramkela, District- Raigarh (Chhattisgarh) ... Respondent(s) (Cause-title taken from Case Information System) For Petitioner : Mr. Sunil Sahu, Advocate For State/Respondent/s : Mr. Shreyansh Mehta, Panel Lawyer Hon'ble Shri Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad Order on Board RAVI SHANKAR MANDAVI Digitally signed by RAVI SHANKAR MANDAVI Date: 2025.05.17 12:13:19 +0530 2 17/04/2025 1. Heard Mr. Sunil Sahu, learned counsel for the petitioner as well as Mr. Shreyansh Mehta, learned Panel Lawyer for the State/respondent/s. 2. By way of ther writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for following reliefs: “10.1. That this Hon'ble court may kindly be please to issue an appropriate writ by quashing the impugned order dated 25.06.2021 & 14.07.2021 passed by the respondent No. 2 & 3. 10.2 That this Hon'ble court may kindly be please to direct the respondents to released the amount of compensation in favor of petitioner in light of policy as well as Circular of RBC for death of her husband. 10.3 Any other relief, which may be suitable in the facts and circumstances of the case, may also be granted.” 3. Brief fact of the case is that the State of Chhattisgarh Revenue & Disaster Management Department has framed the policy for providing the compensation to the Citizens of Chhattisgarh to the Damages / loss caused to them regarding the persons, animals, or to the crops and as per the policy the local Revenue officer Submitted the report to the Sub Divisional Officer who shall released the amount of compensation forthwith.(Annexure P-2). The petitioner husband namely Shri Garjan Singh Malakar died on 30.09.2020 due to Snake Bite in his house when he was sleeping 3 in his house one snake has beaten him in his leg than the information has been given on same day to the police of Police Station Baramkela and the merg is registered the death body was sent for Postmortem after preparing the Panhcnama. Thereafter, the dead body of said Garjan Singh was sent for Postmortem after recording the panchnama and Doctor conducted the autopsy and given the report" death was due to the cordiorespiracy failure followed by poisonous snake bite venom envenomalion “Nature of death Accidental in nature". Thereafter, the petitioner submitted the application on 23.11.2020 along with the relevant documents before the Tahsildar and seeks the compensation as per the policy and Tahsildar recorded the statement of petitioner as well as witnesses and sent the file to the SDO Revenue. The learned Sub Divisional officer has recorded his ordersheet on 02.12.2020 mentioning that from perusal of the documents it appear that the deceased died due to the Snake bite and call for the pretivedan from the Police and the pretivedan is submitted by the respondent No. 5 alongwith the FSL report in which it is mentioned that in the preserve articles i.e. peace of Right leg no snake poison was found and after preparing the notesheet sent to the respondent No.3 by the respondent No. 4 vide its ordersheet dated 12.03.2021 and vide order dated 21.05.2021 sent the file to the Collector for his opinion to close the case for compensation and vide order dated 14.07.2021, closed the proceedings by rejecting the claim of the petitioner. ( Annexure P-1). ( Annexure P-1). The death of Grajan 4 Singh was taken place on 30.,09.2020 and the Post Mortem report is obtained on the same day in which it is clearly mentioned that the cause of death is snake bite and the FSL report of his right leg received from Bilaspur on 09.02.2021 stating that the Snake poison is not present in Article A & B and on relying the said report case is closed which is contrary to the investigation. As the FSL report is the expert opinion and it is in suggestive nature and only on the basis of the said report the complete claim of the petitioner can not be rejected therefore the respondent No. 2 and 3 have committed an error of law in passing the impugned order by dismissing the claim of the petitioner. Hence this petition. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that he has filed this petition for grant of compensation on account of death of husband of the petitioner, who died due to snake bite. The application for grant of compensation has been dismissed by the Collector on the ground that in the FSL report there is no evidence to show that the deceased died due to snake bite, whereas in the postmortem report it has been specifically mentioned that the deceased died due to snake bite. He further submits that in the Panchnama also it is shown that the deceased died due to snake bite. 5. Learned counsel for the respondent-State submits that subject to due verification and scrutiny of the claim of the petitioner, appropriate steps shall be taken at the earliest within a short period. 5 6. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and also perused the material available on record. 7. Considering the aforesaid aspect of the matter, the impugned or- der passed by the Collector dated 25.06.2021 (Annexure P/1) is hereby quashed and the respondent authority is directed to pay compensation to the petitioner in accordance with law incorporat- ing the existing policy of the State Government preferably within a period of two months from the date of receipt of the copy of this order. 8. With the aforementioned observation/s and direction/s, writ petition is disposed of. Sd/- (Amitendra Kishore Prasad) Judge Ravi Mandavi