P ASOKAN Vs. WESTERN INDIA PLYWOODS LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question referred to the Full Bench relates to the interpretation to be placed on Ss. S3 and 61 of the Employees' State Insurance Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'.)

(2.) A Division Bench of this Court made some general observations on the scope of the sections in the decision in Abad Fisheries v. Commr. for Workmen's Compensation, 1985 KLT 104 . The correctness of the observations was doubted by the Division Bench. Those observations would in one view be treated as obiter, in the light of the ultimate factual situation about the payment effected to the claimant, which was noted, with satisfaction in the decision itself. It was felt desirable that the position is laid down authoritatively by a Full Bench of this Court, as the decision had wide application in relation to large number of claims arising in the industrial sector.

(3.) The C. M. Appeal is against an order of the court below which upheld the defendant employer's objection about the ouster of jurisdiction of the Civil Court, when the employee initiated proceedings invoking O.33 R.5 CPC to sue the employer as an indigent person. The allegations of the employee and the objections of the employer may briefly be referred to.