REGIONAL DIRECTOR ESIC Vs. L RANGA RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is preferred against the order passed by the Employees Insurance Court on an application made under S. 75 of the Employees State Insurance Act, 1941 (called shortly as 'the Act')

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts in outline are these : The respondents before us were applicants before the Employees Insurance Court. Their son Sudhirdra Kumar was an employee of M/s Mysore Breweries Ltd., Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore. He was working as a Refrigerator Operator in the said factory. On 10th August 1978, when he was on his way to the factory to join duty in the third sh ft which was to commence at 10-00 p.m , he was run over by an unidentified motor vehicle causing his death at the spot. Unfortunately the vehicle could not be traced and therefore the respondents could not approach the Claims Tribunal constituted under the Motor Vehicles Act. They moved the Employees Insurance Court under S. 75 of the Act claiming the benefits payable under the Act on the ground that their son died as a result of an employment injury. The Regional Director of the Employees State Insurance Corporation contested the application contending inter alia that the employee was killed in a road accident while walking on a public road and not travelling in a vehicle provided by the employer and therefore his death was not out of and in the course of his employment. But the "insurance Court did not accept the contention of the Regional Director. It held that the death was in the course of the employment, and the dependants are entitled to the benefits payable under the Act. The Corporation has preferred this appeal challenging the order of the Insurance Court. The circumstances under which the employee met with an accident are not in dispute. They are summarised in the order under the appeal as follows :

(3.) There is no dispute before us about the accidental death of Sudhindra Kumar at the place above mentioned. There is also no dispute that he was an employee in the "Mysore Breweries Ltd" at the time of his death. What was, how ever, urged for the appellant was that the deceased was not travelling in the transport provided by the management and was walking on a national Highway like any other member of the public when the accident occurred, and therefore he could not be said to have suffered the death in the course of the employment.