ZOO AUTHORITY OF KARNATAKA Vs. RANGA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By consent of learned Counsel, this appeal is treated as having been posted for hearing and we have heard them.

(2.) Zoo Authority of Karnataka has filed this appeal under Section 30 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 ('the Act'), questioning the validity of an order of the Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, Mysore District, Mysore ('the Commissioner'), by which it is directed to pay as compensation a sum of Rs. 9,114/- to the respondent.

(3.) Antecedant material facts which bear on the contentions raised in the appeal, may be briefly referred to here with advantage. Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens at Mysore ('the Zoological Gardens') was formerly an establishment of the Department of Horticulture of the Government of Karnataka, its employees being Government servants. That establishment stood transferred in its entirety along with the servants working there to the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (the appellant) after its registration as a society under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. Ths respondent, who was a Keeper of wild animals in the Zoological Gardens, continued as such even after its transfer to the appellant. On 20-11-1975, while the respondent was discharging his duties in the Zoological Gardens, he was attacked by a wild animal-Chimpanzee kept there, making him suffer injuries in fingers of his both hands and toes of his left leg. This led him to make a claim under the Act against the appellant for payment of compensation for the said injuries before the Commissioner. On enquiry of that claim, the Commissioner made the order which has become the subject matter of this appeal, as stated at the outset.