MAHARASHTRA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD Vs. SARUBAI GANPATI KOLGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these appeals are arising out of one and the same judgment and award dtd. 23/11/2001 passed by the Commissioner, Workmen's Compensation Tribunal and Civil Judge, Senior Division, Osmanabad (hereinafter referred to as "the learned Commissioner") in W.C.A. No. 6/1997 whereby certain compensation has been awarded to the applicants - claimants who are the appellants in First Appeal No. 728 of 2002. First Appeal No. 76 of 2002 is filed by Maharashtra State Electricity Board (M.S.E.B.), who was the employer of deceased, for setting aside the said judgment and award. To avoid ambiguity, I have referred the parties as "claimants" and "M.S.E.B.". It is to be noted here that M.S.E.B. has filed First Appeal No. 76 of 2002 for cancellation of compensation amount granted by the learned Commissioner by contending that the deceased Bhagwat Ganpatrao Kolge did not die during the course of employment. On the contrary, the claimants, who are the dependents of deceased Bhagwat, have filed First Appeal No. 728 of 2002 for enhancement of compensation since the interest and penalty on the compensation amount is not granted.

(2.) The background facts are as under :-

(3.) Learned Counsel for the M.S.E.B. i.e. the employer submits that though the deceased Bhagwat was Junior Operator at Sub Station, Javla, but when the incident of snake bite had taken place, he was not on duty, and therefore, not entitled for any compensation under the provisions of the Act. He pointed out that the M.S.E.B. has also examined one of it's employees i.e. DW-1 Sudhir Chandrakant Baraskar, who brought on record a duty list whereby it was already revealed that the deceased was not on duty and he had no occasion to be there at Sub Station at the time of incident. Besides the oral submissions, learned Counsel for the M.S.E.B. also relied on the following judgments :