MEENA DATTATRAYA KOLI Vs. MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants have filed this appeal impugning a judgment and order dated 11.10.1991 passed by the Commissioner under the Workmen s Compensation Act declaring that the appellants are only dependents of the deceased Dattatraya L. Koli and holding that they are entitled to receive an amount of compensation as detailed in the said order. The total amount of compensation which has been awarded is Rs.80,664/-. Short grievance of the appellants is that the Commissioner failed in his duty to award interest and penalty which was payable to them in view of Section 4(A)(3)(a) and (b) of the Workmen s Compensation Act, 1923.

(2.) Brief facts of the case indicates that accidental death of deceased-Dattatraya was caused on 7.8.1990. An amount of Rs.48,523/- was deposited by the employer MSEB only on 12.10.1990. The Commissioner under the Workmen s Compensation Act on receipt of this amount issued notice to the heirs of the deceased and the heirs of the deceased appeared and submitted an application-(U-1) interalia contending therein that the amount of compensation had not been properly calculated. In the course of recording of the evidence, the Commissioner noticed that there was a dispute in respect of the amount of compensation deposited. On scrutiny, he found that what the MSEB had done was that they had calculated eight months wages and averaged the same for the entire year. This was done by the employer because the workmen had remained absent for four months. The Commissioner stated that the mode of calculation of compensation was not proper and hence by an order dated 10.4.1991 below Exh.U-1 he directed the employer MSEB to deposit a further amount of Rs. 31,141/- in the court on or before 10.5.1991.

(3.) After this order, MSEB deposited an amount of Rs.32,141/-. Thus, total amount of Rs.80,664/- was deposited with the Commissioner and by the impugned order this was distributed to the appellants.