DIV PERSONNEL OFFICER SOUTHERN RAILWAY Vs. KARTHIYANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is brought by the Southern Railway from the order of the Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, Trichur awarding a sum of Rs. 19,200/- as compensation to the claimant who is the widow of a workman of the railway who died on 17-3-1975 at about 4.15 p.m.

(2.) Counsel for the railway submits that there was no causal connection between the drinking of the water and the death. In any view, be submits that drinking the water was not an act connected with the work of the deceased and, therefore, the accident by which his death was caused did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. He further contends that in any view the Commissioner awarded compensation with reference to a Schedule which was not in force on the date of the death.

(3.) If a workman is injured or killed by reason of his contact with, or exposure to, a matter or energy in the place of his work, then the accident by which he was injured or killed arose put of or in the course of his employment. Even if the accident did not arise from anything connected with his employment, but from something out of it, namely, the collapsing of a neighbouring wall or the capsizing of a boat in which he was working under orders of his employer, the accident arose out of a risk incidental to the employment. If quenching thirst was inherent in the nature of his work and water was provided by the employer for such purpose in the employer's premises, and the workman suffered injury or death as a result of drinking the water, that was an event which arose out of and in the course of his employment. In this connection the observation of a Division Bench of this Court in George v. Sumathi, 1975 KLT 784 is apposite: